PITTSBURGH, April 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- EQT
Corporation (NYSE: EQT) today announced its commitment to seek
independent certification of a majority of its produced natural gas
under certification standards developed by Equitable Origin and
MiQ. The certification process is expected to commence this month,
and it is anticipated that certification from Equitable Origin and
MiQ will be obtained later this year.
Under the proposed project, EQT plans to obtain Equitable Origin
and MiQ certification of the natural gas produced from over 200 of
its well pads located in Greene
and Washington Counties,
Pennsylvania, which collectively
produce approximately 4.0 Bcf/day from the wellhead (gross volume).
These certifications will expand EQT's growing portfolio of
certified natural gas, sometimes referred to as responsibly sourced
gas, having previously announced in January a separate project with
Project Canary to certify gas produced from two of its well pads,
also located in southwestern Pennsylvania. When its certification project
with Equitable Origin and MiQ is completed, EQT's certified natural
gas production will comprise 4.5% of all natural gas produced in
the U.S. This means EQT will be producing more certified gas than
any other U.S. producer's entire natural gas production (certified
or uncertified). EQT is committing to produce certified gas under
the Equitable Origin and MiQ certification standards initially for
a one-year period in order to further explore the market for these
differentiated natural gas products.
"We received a tremendous amount of market interest following
our announcement in January that we would be seeking certification
of a portion of our natural gas production," said Toby Rice, President and Chief Executive Officer
of EQT. Mr. Rice continued, "We are committed to the highest
standards of performance for our production operations, and we
believe that obtaining certification from Equitable Origin and MiQ
will enable us to further demonstrate our commitment to producing
our natural gas in accordance with high environmental and social
standards, and differentiate our gas in the market."
Equitable Origin and MiQ will oversee an independent,
third-party audited assessment of EQT's natural gas production from
the selected well pads focusing on environmental, social and
governance (ESG) performance, including methane emissions.
Equitable Origin, has a proven track record of certifying energy
companies on ESG indicators in accordance with its EO100™ Standard
for Responsible Energy Development, a set of rigorous ESG
performance standards for energy development projects. Equitable
Origin will certify EQT's produced natural gas against the five
principles of the EO100™ Standard, including corporate governance
and ethics; social impacts, human rights and community engagement;
Indigenous Peoples' rights; occupational health & safety and
fair labor standards; and environmental impacts, biodiversity and
climate change.
Soledad Mills, CEO, Equitable
Origin, said: "Markets for differentiated natural gas are beginning
to reward those companies with superior ESG performance. We
recognize energy companies that operate in accordance with the
highest social and environmental standards based on certification
to the EO100™ Standard. EQT has a long-standing commitment to ESG
and we are delighted to work with them on this exciting project."
Ms. Mills continued, "MiQ brings a wealth of expertise and
experience in energy and climate change. Their certification system
provides an independent, credible and quantified approach to
methane performance evaluation that sits alongside, and enhances,
our overall certification process."
MiQ, a non-profit partnership between RMI and SYSTEMIQ, is
pioneering a market-based approach to rapidly reduce methane
emissions across the natural gas sector. Its quanitiative
certification standard - the MiQ Standard - factors in methane
intensity, company practices, and methane detection. The MiQ
Standard embodies a commitment to transparency, accountability,
technology independence, and granularity.
Georges Tijbosch, Senior Adviser, MiQ, said: "Across the energy
industry, from producers to consumers, there is a growing awareness
of the climate change impact of methane emissions from natural gas
production. Methane has 84x the global warming potential of
CO2i reducing this harmful greenhouse gas is one of the
most important things we can do to reach our global climate goals
in the next decade." Mr. Tijbosch continued, "EQT's certification
program is an exciting step to differntiating the U.S natural gas
market based on ESG criteria. We look forward to collaborating with
Equitable Origin to provide quantified certification of the methane
component of EQT's production against our independent, third-party
audited, and quantitative standard."
Contacts
EQT:
Andrew Breese
Director, Investor Relations
412.395.2555
ABreese@eqt.com
MiQ & Equitable Origin:
Rory Grenham
+44 7415 212849
Rory.grenham@theblakeneygroup.com
About EQT
EQT Corporation is a leading independent
natural gas production company with operations focused in the cores
of the Marcellus and Utica Shales in the Appalachian Basin. We are
dedicated to responsibly developing our world-class asset base and
being the operator of choice for our stakeholders. By leveraging a
culture that prioritizes operational efficiency, technology, and
sustainability, we seek to continuously improve the way we produce
environmentally responsible, reliable and low-cost energy. We have
a longstanding commitment to the safety of our employees,
contractors, and communities, and to the reduction of our overall
environmental footprint. Our values are evident in the way we
operate and in how we interact each day – trust, teamwork, heart,
and evolution are at the center of all we do. To learn more,
visit eqt.com.
About Equitable Origin
Equitable Origin is a
non-profit organization that was founded with a vision to create a
market-based mechanism to recognize and reward responsible energy
producers and to empower energy purchasers through independent,
site-level certification. The EO100™ Standard for Responsible
Energy Development is grounded in a set of comprehensive, globally
applicable ESG indicators developed with extensive stakeholder
input.
The EO100™ Standard is based on five universal principles that
consolidate and align international management systems, performance
targets, and reporting frameworks. Certification against the EO100™
Standard promotes best practices and drives improvements in ESG
performance while enabling a market for certified responsible
energy with a premium price for differentiated production. To
learn more, visit energystandards.org.
About MiQ
MiQ is an independent, not-for-profit
partnership between RMI and SYSTEMIQ aiming to facilitate a rapid
reduction in methane emissions from the natural gas
sector.
MiQ has developed a universally applicable certification
standard for credibly assessing the methane performance of natural
gas production around the world. The standard is independent,
third-party audited, quantitative, and graded across a sliding A-F
scale based on three metrics: methane intensity, company practices,
and methane detection technology deployment. MiQ's Certification
scheme is designed to improve transparency about methane emissions
and provide the backbone for a level playing field across the
global natural gas market.
An MiQ Certificate represents the methane emissions performance
attributes of a specified portion of natural gas. MiQ maintains a
registry of all MiQ Certificates issued, which is designed to
prevent double-counting of certificates. Upon issuance, the MiQ
Certificate is registered in the MiQ registry, and when the
certified gas reaches a final end-user, the end-user can request a
retirement statement from MiQ with respect to the certified gas,
helping ensure the authenticity of the end-user's purchase of
certified gas. For EQT's certification project, MiQ will also
include the certificates issued by Equitable Origin in its
registration process. To learn more, visit miq.org.
Cautionary Statements
This news release contains
certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section
21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and Section
27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Statements that do
not relate strictly to historical or current facts are
forward-looking. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing,
forward-looking statements contained in this news release
specifically include the expectations of plans, strategies and
objectives of EQT Corporation and its subsidiaries (collectively,
the Company), including the projected terms, scope, benefits and
results of the natural gas certification project with Equitable
Origin and MiQ (the Project), the projected market for certified
natural gas, and the timing of implementation of the Project and
obtaining certification or whether the Project and certifications
will be implemented or obtained at all. The risks and uncertainties
that may affect the implementation and execution of the Project and
other forward-looking statements made herein include, but are not
limited to, volatility of commodity prices; the costs and results
of drilling and operations; access to and cost of capital;
uncertainties about estimates of reserves, identification of
drilling locations and the ability to add proved reserves in the
future; the assumptions underlying production forecasts; the
quality of technical data; the Company's ability to appropriately
allocate capital and resources among its strategic opportunities;
inherent hazards and risks normally incidental to drilling for,
producing, transporting and storing natural gas, NGLs and oil;
cyber security risks; availability and cost of drilling rigs,
completion services, equipment, supplies, personnel, oilfield
services and water required to execute the Company's exploration
and development plans; the ability to obtain environmental and
other permits and the timing thereof; government regulation or
action; environmental and weather risks, including the possible
impacts of climate change; uncertainties related to the severity,
magnitude and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic; and disruptions to
the Company's business due to acquisitions and other significant
transactions. These and other risks are described under Item 1A,
"Risk Factors," and elsewhere in the Company's Annual Report on
Form 10-K for the year ended December 31,
2020, as updated by Part II, Item 1A, "Risk Factors" in the
Company's subsequently filed Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and
other documents the Company files from time to time with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, the Company may be
subject to currently unforeseen risks that may have a materially
adverse impact on it.
i Over a 20-year timeframe
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SOURCE EQT Corporation (EQT-IR)