EQT Corp., the Downtown-based natural gas producer that completed its acquisition of Equitrans Midstream Corp. in July, announced that it will lay off 15% of its employees by sometime next year.
The staff reductions include former executive officers and some senior employees at Equitrans, which had originally been part of EQT and spun out as its own publicly traded company in 2018.
EQT said severance payments, stock-based compensation and other benefits associated with the plan will cost the company between $165 million to $185 million.
When the companies were pursuing the $5.45 billion deal, EQT had said it expects to deliver $425 million in annual synergies from the merger. In a public filing this week, the company said the staff-reduction plan represents about $80 million of annual costs.
According to their annual reports, EQT had 881 employees at the end of last year, while Equitrans had 773. At those levels, a 15% reduction in the workforce would mean about 250 employees.
At the Marcellus Shale Coalition's annual Shale Insight conference last week, EQT CEO Toby Rice said the company is improving its efficiency in integrating the firms it buys into the larger company.
Over the past five years, EQT has spent more than $8 billion on acquisitions that included assets from Chevron, Alta, Tug Hill Corp. and XcL Midstream.
"When we do an integration, we push a button and we generate hundreds of tasks that need to get done by all corners of the team," Mr. Rice said during the conference in Erie. "We're doing more tasks, done in a faster period of time. Our integration efficiency is up 50%... and currently we are flexing this muscle with the Equitrans acquisition."
In its public filing this week, EQT said most of the charges associated with the staff reduction will be recorded in the third quarter.
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This story was originally published October 2, 2024 at 11:08 PM