Houston-based Kinder Morgan, which has muscled up its pipeline operations in the Eagle Ford with last month’s $1.8 billion acquisition of NextEra Energy Partners’ South Texas assets, has natural gas and LNG on the noggin in a big and differentiating way. ...

The OGs of early-day Chesapeake Energy are no doubt excited by the news the company will now become the nation’s largest natural gas producer. In a $7.4 billion all-stock deal guided by CEO chess master Nick Dell’Osso, CHK gets the keys to Southwestern Energy, the title of U.S. Gas King, and a combined valuation of nearly $17 billion. ...