Rice Energy Inc, a natural gas exploration and production company intends to go public in the first quarter of 2014 according to the initial paperwork filed today with the SEC. Reuters is reporting that the company is seeking to raise as much as $2.5 billion from the IPO. Rice employs hydraulic fracturing techniques to extract natural gas. Rice extracts most of its natural gas from the Pennsylvania's Marcellus shale and Ohio's Utica shale.