Toby Z. Rice and Derek A. Rice, EQT shareholders trying to wrest control from the executives and board of the U.S.’s largest natural gas producer, said last week they’re reducing the size of their slate of nominees for the EQT board to seven from nine, Kallanish Energy reports.

The change was motivated by EQT’s announcement it will nominate three new director candidates to replace three long-tenured directors the so-called Rice Team maintains aren’t sufficiently savvy in oil and gas to have a seat on the EQT board.

Having reviewed these new EQT nominees, the Rice Team believes two of them, Janet L. Carrig and James T. McManus II, “appear qualified to serve on the EQT board,” the team stated.

The Rice Team’s new slate of board nominees include: Lydia I. Beebe, Lee M. Canaan, Dr. Kathryn J. Jackson, John F. McCartney, Daniel J. Rice IV, Toby Z. Rice and Hallie A. Vanderhider.

Scratched from the revised slate are Jay C. Graham, 48, current chairman and CEO of Spur Energy Partners. Graham served as CEO and chairman of WildHorse Resources Development from September 2016 until it was acquired by Chesapeake Energy this past February.

Also not running for the EQT board is D. Mark Leland, 57, whose work resume includes numerous roles with El Paso Corp. and its various business units, including president of El Paso Midstream Group and executive vice president and chief financial officer of El Paso.

“While we are pleased EQT has replaced three long-tenured directors, including its chairman (former long-time banking executive Jim Rohr), and has added two qualified director nominees to its slate that we can support, we continue to believe that substantial board change is required to achieve the fundamental improvements needed at EQT,” the Rice Team said, in a release.

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