Zachary Covar Joins Summit Midstream As Vice President - Health, Safety, Environmental and Regulatory Affairs

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Jun 22, 2015, 02:57 ET

THE WOODLANDS, Texas, June 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Summit Midstream Partners, LP (NYSE: SMLP) today announced that Zachary "Zak" Covar, former Commissioner of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), has joined Summit Midstream as Vice President in charge of Summit's Health, Safety, Environmental and Regulatory affairs.

Covar, who will be based at Summit's corporate headquarters in The Woodlands, Texas, assumes primary responsibility for developing, implementing and evaluating Summit's health, safety and environmental policies and procedures for complying with applicable state and federal regulations. He will report to Brock Degeyter, Summit's General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer.

"Summit has always maintained a strong commitment to safe and sustainable business operations, and Zak's outstanding reputation and experience in the environmental and regulatory fields will only enhance the company's health, safety and environmental programs by providing new leadership, perspective and techniques," said Mr. Degeyter. "Zak possesses a unique combination of public sector knowledge and practical management experience that will benefit our personnel and the various stakeholders in the communities in which we operate. These are particularly valuable attributes as we pursue new growth opportunities, and we could not be more pleased to have him join the Summit team."

"Summit's robust growth in the core producing areas of some of the most exciting new resource basins in North America provides the perfect opportunity for me to leverage the insights I gained with the TCEQ," Covar said. "While I will miss my colleagues and friends in Austin, I am excited to embark on this next stage of my career. Summit's reputation as a leader among midstream operators, its wealth of talented management, and its exciting growth prospects made this an easy decision."

Covar served as a Deputy Executive Director of the TCEQ from 2008 until 2012, and as Executive Director of the TCEQ from 2012 until 2014. In January 2014, Gov. Rick Perry appointed him to the TCEQ to serve an unexpired term as Commissioner. The TCEQ, which currently employs approximately 2,750 employees and has 16 regional offices, is the environmental agency for the state of Texas and the second-largest environmental agency in the United States. This experience, coupled with his service in the legislative arena focused on energy and environmental policy, gives him particular insight into regulatory developments involving air quality, water quality and waste management.

Before joining the TCEQ, Covar spent seven years in legislative and political affairs in the State of Texas.

About Summit Midstream Partners, LP
SMLP is a growth-oriented limited partnership focused on developing, owning and operating midstream energy infrastructure assets that are strategically located in the core producing areas of unconventional resource basins, primarily shale formations, in North America. SMLP currently provides natural gas, crude oil and produced water gathering services pursuant to primarily long-term and fee-based gathering and processing agreements with customers and counterparties in four unconventional resource basins: (i) the Appalachian Basin, which includes the Marcellus Shale formation in northern West Virginia; (ii) the Williston Basin, which includes the Bakken and Three Forks shale formations in northwestern North Dakota; (iii) the Fort Worth Basin, which includes the Barnett Shale formation in north-central Texas; and (iv) the Piceance Basin, which includes the Mesaverde formation as well as the Mancos and Niobrara shale formations in western Colorado and eastern Utah. SMLP owns and operates more than 2,600 miles of pipeline and is headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas with regional corporate offices in Denver, Colorado and Atlanta, Georgia.

About Summit Midstream Partners, LLC
Summit Midstream Partners, LLC ("Summit Investments") indirectly owns a 43.9% limited partner interest in SMLP and indirectly owns and controls the general partner of SMLP, Summit Midstream GP, LLC, which has sole responsibility for conducting the business and managing the operations of SMLP. Summit Investments owns, operates and is developing various natural gas, crude oil and produced water-related midstream energy infrastructure assets in the Utica Shale in southeastern Ohio, the Bakken Shale in northwestern North Dakota, and the DJ Basin in northeastern Colorado. Summit Investments also owns a 40% interest in a joint venture that is developing natural gas gathering and condensate stabilization infrastructure in the Utica Shale in southeastern Ohio. Summit Investments is a privately held company controlled by Energy Capital Partners II, LLC, and certain of its affiliates.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes certain statements concerning expectations for the future that are forward-looking within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements contain known and unknown risks and uncertainties (many of which are difficult to predict and beyond management's control) that may cause SMLP's actual results in future periods to differ materially from anticipated or projected results. An extensive list of specific material risks and uncertainties affecting SMLP is contained in its 2014 Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 2, 2015 and as amended and updated from time to time. Any forward-looking statements in this press release are made as of the date of this press release and SMLP undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new information or events.

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SOURCE Summit Midstream Partners, LP