NextEra Energy Partners to Buy Meade Pipeline for $1.37 billion

(Reuters) — Independent power producer NextEra Energy Partners LP said on Monday it will buy Meade Pipeline Co LLC, a co-owner of the Central Penn Line in Pennsylvania, in a deal valued at about $1.37 billion, including some future capital contributions.

The Central Penn Line is an intrastate natural gas pipeline that connects the Marcellus basin to mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions in the United States.

The deal comes at a time when a shortage of pipeline capacity to carry natural gas has led to weaker prices, forcing producers to flare or burn it.

Meade Pipeline, a private joint venture between AltaGas Ltd's unit WGL Midstream, Cabot Oil & Gas Corp and EIF Vega Midstream, owns a 39.2% stake in the pipeline.

It is majority owned by Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company, which operates it as part of its Atlantic Sunrise project.

While AltaGas Ltd will sell its stake in the pipeline to Meade for about C$870 million ($656.85 million), Cabot said it will sell its 20% stake in Meade to NextEra for about $256 million.

NextEra said the deal includes an initial consideration of $1.28 billion to be funded through debt.

The deal is expected to add to the adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of $90 million to $100 million a year initially and $105 million to $115 million after the completion of an capacity expansion project.

The deal will help expand NextEra's investment in long-term contracted natural gas pipelines, "helping mitigate any potential resource volatility in the portfolio," said NextEra Chief Executive Officer Jim Robo in a statement.

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