The Butler County oil and gas assets of a driller — once backed by Goldman Sachs but later plunged into bankruptcy by the explosion of the Revolution pipeline in 2018 — now belong to Lola Energy.
Canonsburg-based Lola was founded in 2015 by former EQT executive Jim Crockard. It sold its first land position in Greene County to Rice Energy Inc. then set out to lease in the same area again as Lola Energy II. Tuesday’s announcement, which involves Lola Energy III, identified assets in Butler County that once belonged to EdgeMarc Energy Inc. The move significantly expands Lola’s profile in the region.
EdgeMarc, also based in Canonsburg, was one of the leading gas producers in southwestern Pennsylvania. It declared bankruptcy in May 2019, blaming Energy Transfer Corp. for its circumstances. Energy Transfer’s Revolution natural gas pipeline was EdgeMarc’s only conduit to get its gas to market, the oil and gas company said.
In September 2018, the pipeline in Center Township, Beaver County, slid down a wet hill and exploded, just days after it was activated. EdgeMarc was forced to shut in many of its wells. A legal battle ensued and EdgeMarc accused Energy Transfer of negligence in the construction of the pipeline and of fabricating documents to cover up its fault in the landslide. The potential payout in that lawsuit if EdgeMarc prevailed was considered EdgeMarc’s greatest asset at one point.
EdgeMarc’s bankruptcy sponsor KeyBank took the Butler County assets out of bankruptcy and was using EdgeMarc’s former operations team to run them as it looked for a buyer.
A deal value of Lola’s acquisition was not disclosed — neither was EdgeMarc’s name, although its assets closely match those outlined Lola’s announcement and the deal was confirmed by the Post-Gazette.
It involves about 22,000 acres, 48 producing wells, 18 wells that have been drilled but not yet fracked, and water pipelines, a pump station, tanks and an impoundment that’s used to handle the vast amounts of water needed to frack shale wells.
Lola’s announcement comes a few weeks after Energy Transfer put the repaired Revolution pipeline back into service after two and a half years.
Anya Litvak: alitvak@post-gazette.com
First Published: March 23, 2021, 6:54 p.m.
