Jeff Hildebrand's Harvest Midstream to buy some MPLX pipeline assets for $1 billion

By David French

Aug 27 (Reuters) - Harvest Midstream, owned by the founder of privately held Hilcorp Energy, has agreed a deal to acquire $1 billion worth of natural gas gathering and processing assets from MPLX MPLX.N, the companies said on Wednesday.

Houston-based Harvest holds midstream assets in multiple oil and gas plays, notably in Alaska and the Bakken shale of North Dakota. It was founded by billionaire businessman Jeff Hildebrand, who also owns Hilcorp, one of the largest U.S. private oil and gas companies.

Shares of MPLX gained more than 1.4% in the premarket trading. Reuters had reported the news earlier in the day, citing people familiar with the matter.

Under the agreement, Harvest will dedicate around 12 thousand barrels per day of natural gas liquids from these assets to MPLX for seven years beginning 2028.

The deal with MPLX will allow Harvest to expand its operations into the Uinta and Green River shale basins, which collectively stretch across Utah, Colorado and Wyoming.

Harvest is set to buy about 1,500 miles (2,414 km) of pipelines that transport natural gas from the wellhead to larger lines that link with consumers, as well as 1.2 billion cubic feet per day of processing capacity, the companies said.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

For MPLX, the deal comes as the company is focusing more investment on the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico.

MPLX has struck around $3.5 billion of acquisitions in 2025, according to an August 5 analyst call. The activity has been centered on the Permian and the most recent one was an agreement to buy Northwind Midstream for nearly $2.4 billion.

The company, alongside WhiteWater and other partners, on Monday announced the final investment decision on the Eiger Express Pipeline, a new natural gas pipeline linking the Permian with export facilities on the U.S. Gulf coast.