The battle for board control at shale gas giant EQT reignited earlier this week following an exchange of letters to shareholders from former Rice Energy executive Toby Rice and a quick response from EQT, writes Julia Martinez.

The Rice team, led by Toby and his brother Derek, has been quarrelling with EQT since last year for control of the 12-member board.

The team own about a 3.1% stake in EQT and has won the support of shareholders DE Shaw and Elliott Management.

EQT has been sparring with the Rice team who have said the Appalachia-focused company’s poor performance after a $6.7 billion acquisition of Rice Energy in 2017 calls for a board takeover.

The brothers have put forth a list of seven board candidates they believe would "realise the full potential of the merger with Rice Energy".

That list includes Toby, with plans to appoint him chief executive at EQT, and brother Daniel, who currently serves on EQT’s board.

The battle is set to come to an end at the shareholder meeting on 10 July.

EQT in a letter said that the board challenge is one where Toby is "singularly focused on installing himself as CEO and irresponsibly packing the board and management team with his friends and family, which would disrupt EQT’s strong momentum and be value destructive".

EQT's newest board appointments and management assumed control in the fourth quarter of 2018. Gary Gould, who previously held positions at Continental Resources and Chesapeake Energy, was hired in April as chief operating officer.

The company recently put forth a cost-saving initiative called Target 10% intended to raise cumulative adjusted free cash flow by $500 million between 2019 and 2023.

The Rice team offered short interviews of their candidates in a recent letter to stakeholders. The nominees include Lydia Beebe, Lee Canaan, Kate Jackson, John McCartney, and Hallie Vanderhider. McCartney was previously a board member at Rice Energy.

The Rice team has said that EQT’s performance and plan following the merger has been "insufficient".

"It is incremental and reactive and, even if the current EQT management team could execute successfully upon it, EQT would continue to lag its peers," the team said. The nominees talked about Rice’s ability to push for cultural change and experience as an operator with data-driven decisions, among other things.

EQT responded to the letter, saying that as its "recent outperformance and last two quarterly results demonstrate, EQT’s ambitious plan is working".

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EQT-Rice board row continues with letters to shareholders