MarkWest Energy Partners, L.P. and The Energy & Minerals Group declared the closing of the previously announced acquisition by MarkWest of the 49 percent interest in MarkWest Liberty Midstream & Resources, LLC held by EMG.

'We are very pleased to complete the acquisition of EMG's interest in the Liberty joint venture'.

The acquisition consideration included approximately $1.0 billion of cash and the issuance of 19.95 million unregistered MWE Class B Units to EMG. MarkWest expects that on a DCF per unit basis, the acquisition is immediately accretive in 2012 and would be up to 6 percent accretive in 2013 and beyond.

MarkWest and EMG are also entering into a new Utica Shale midstream joint venture to develop significant natural gas processing and NGL fractionation, transportation, and marketing infrastructure in eastern Ohio beginning in 2012. Under the terms of the Utica joint venture, EMG will fund a majority of the initial capital expenditures required to develop the Utica midstream infrastructure. MarkWest and EMG expect to issue a press release in January 2012 with additional details regarding the Utica joint venture and its planned activities in the Utica Shale.

'We are very pleased to complete the acquisition of EMG's interest in the Liberty joint venture,' said Frank Semple, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of MarkWest. 'The Liberty joint venture has been very successful in leveraging its first-mover advantage to become the largest provider of world-class midstream infrastructure critical to the development of the liquids-rich area of the Marcellus. Given the quality and compelling producer economics of the Marcellus shale, we anticipate significant additional growth in our producers' volumes and our midstream assets for years to come. We are also pleased to be forming a joint venture with EMG to develop integrated midstream infrastructure in the liquids-rich corridor of the Utica Shale and look forward to providing more details in early 2012.'

"We are pleased to announce the completion of the sale of EMG's interest in the Liberty joint venture to MarkWest,' stated John Raymond, Managing Partner and CEO of EMG. 'By virtue of this transaction, MarkWest has captured the strategic value associated with the consolidated interest in the joint venture and EMG will become a significant equity owner of MarkWest. As also previously announced, we look forward to leveraging the expertise of EMG and MarkWest to jointly develop a fully integrated system to maximize the value of the liquids-rich natural gas production of the Utica shale."

Tags: MarkWest Energy Partners