EQT To Merge with Range Resources in Monster Deal

EQT will acquire Range Resources in a deal that is valued at more than $50 billion, its CEOs announced in a joint press release. The move will combine two of the largest operators in the Appalachian natural gas basin into one powerhouse that expects to grow the business further.

EQT will merge with Range in an all-stock deal that has already been approved by both companies’ boards of directors. Range shareholders will receive .987 shares of EQT stock with EQT shareholders expected to own about 73% of the combined company and Range shareholders 27%. The deal must still be approved by regulatory authorities and shareholders and is expected to be final in the first quarter of 2027.

Both companies are based in Southpointe and will operate out of EQT’s existing headquarters. EQT’s executive team will lead the new company, but the board of directors will be expanded from 10 to 12, with Range CEO Dennis Degner and another Range designee added.

Using the present stock prices, the merger is valued at $12.8 billion to $13.7 billion but EQT said the enterprise value of the new, standalone company will be more than $50 billion. It allows EQT, which was formerly the top gas producer in the U.S., to overtake Expand Energy, formed by the 2024 merger of Chesapeake Energy and Southwestern Energy, and return to the top spot.  

“This transaction comes at a pivotal moment for America's economy as the convergence of modern industry and energy ushers in a new era of growth. Nowhere is this transformation more evident than in Appalachia which is emerging as the epicenter of the U.S. economic renaissance,” EQT CEO Toby Rice said in a conference call. “With a significant inflection in natural gas demand on the horizon, driven by new power generation facilities and expanding pipeline infrastructure, we believe this combination supercharges EQT's positioning making us the operator of choice for this next wave of demand and unlocking opportunities to create differentiated shareholder value from our combined world-class resource base that neither company could achieve independently.”

The addition of Range’s operating positions in areas not now in EQT’s footprint will allow it to grow its business in the region by supplying it to growing power generation and industrial facilities rather than sending gas through a constrained pipeline system to other areas. It will also set up growth in eastern Ohio, which has been a hot spot for data center and power generation growth and also offers pipeline access, the CEOs explained.

The merger represents a full-circle moment both both companies. Range Resources made the initial discovery of how fracking techniques pioneered in Texas could be used here to unlock the Marcellus shale at the Renz well in Washington County almost 22 years ago to the day and became one of the first large producers here. Toby Rice and his brothers founded Rice Energy here in 2007 and grew it into another large operator before EQT acquired it in 2017. Toby Rice led a proxy battle against EQT leadership in 2019 and took control of the company, which has continued grow and add its own midstream pipeline assets.

The presentation also noted that EQT has already identified more than $325 million in operational efficiencies and reduced capital costs but did not elaborate on what that might mean for employment at the merged company.