EQT Corporation merges with Range Resources

EQT agreed on 26 October 2026 to acquire Range Resources in an all-stock merger, at an enterprise value of $14bn. Range shareholders were to receive 0.987 EQT shares for each share held, worth $54.91 per share at the time of announcement, a premium of 20.6% to the previous close. EQT’s existing shareholders would hold around 73% of the combined company and Range’s around 27%. Both boards approved the transaction unanimously, and completion was expected in the first quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory clearances and approval by both shareholder bases. Range Resources extracts natural gas and natural gas liquids from the Marcellus shale in the Appalachian Basin, drilling and operating wells across Pennsylvania and selling the output to utilities, industrial users and exporters. Its acreage sits in the same formation as EQT’s, which is what made the two fit together: adjoining positions can be drilled with longer horizontal wells from shared pads, and the gas moves through the same gathering systems. Combined, the two would produce more than 9 billion cubic feet of gas equivalent a day, against about 7.5 for the next largest American shale gas producer, hold over thirty years of drilling inventory across nearly 3 million net acres and operate more than 3,700 miles of pipeline. The enlarged group would carry an enterprise value above $50 billion including debt. EQT expected $325 million of annual synergies within two years and more than $600 million in the longer term, and to bring its free cash flow breakeven below $2 per million British thermal units, a level at which it remains profitable through most of the price cycle. The merger extended a strategy begun with its purchase of Equitrans Midstream in 2024, which brought the pipeline assets that allow it to move its own gas rather than paying third parties. EQT’s management was to lead the combined company from Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, with two Range representatives, including chief executive Dennis Degner, joining its board.