CONSOL Energy, Noble Energy Plan To Form Midstream Master Limited Partnership

(RTTNews) - CONSOL Energy Inc. (CNX) announced today that CONSOL Energy and its Marcellus Shale joint venture partner, Noble Energy Inc. (NBL), intend to form a master limited partnership or MLP to provide midstream gathering services for production from their jointly owned acreage in the Marcellus Shale.

CONSOL Energy and Noble Energy have caused a draft registration statement on Form S-1 to be confidentially submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering of common units of the MLP.

The offering is expected to be completed late in the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Upon the closing of the initial public offering, CONSOL Energy and Noble Energy will control the general partner of the MLP, which will own the incentive distribution rights, and will collectively own a majority of the limited partner interests of the MLP.

Separately, Noble Energy said that it and CONSOL Energy Inc. have submitted a confidential draft Registration Statement on Form S-1 to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed initial public offering of common units of a master limited partnership (MLP).

Upon completion of the proposed offering, the MLP will own, operate, and develop Noble Energy's and CONSOL's jointly-owned natural gas midstream assets in the Marcellus Shale.

CONSOL and Noble Energy's 50/50 joint venture, CONE Gathering LLC, is anticipated to own the general partner of the MLP, which would retain incentive distribution rights and a majority of the MLP's common units.