Oct 8, 2015 2 min read

CANONSBURG – Rice Energy Inc. said Thursday its Rice Midstream Holdings subsidiary is forming a joint venture with Gulfport Energy Corp. The midstream joint venture will develop natural gas gathering and water services assets to support Gulfport’s dry gas Utica Shale development in Belmont and Monroe counties in Ohio.

According to a news release, Southpointe-based Rice will own 75 percent of the venture and be responsible for constructing and operating the assets, including a dry gas gathering system with capacity to gather more than 1.8 million decatherms of natural gas daily. The system will consist of 165 gathering pipelines with multiple interconnections to interstate pipelines, including Rockies Express, ET Rover, TETCO and Dominion East Ohio.

Gulfport will own the remaining 25 percent of the venture and dedicate approximately 77,000 leasehold acres, including the acreage recently acquired in its Paloma Partners III LLC and American Energy-Utica LLC transactions. In addition, Gulfport will also contribute an existing 11-mile gas gathering pipeline and a TETCO interconnect, which are both located in Monroe County.

Rice and Gulfport plan to invest approximately $520 million to develop gathering and compression assets and $120 million for water assets within the JV over the next six years.

Initial construction of the system is expected to begin immediately and first deliveries are planned for the middle of 2016.

Rice said the joint venture increases its leading midstream position in the core of the Utica Shale. Rice and Gulfport plan to pursue third-party gas gathering and water services opportunities within a 340,000-acre area of mutual interest that covers portions of eastern Belmont and Monroe counties.