EQT Agrees to Buy Range Resources in $12.8 Billion All-Stock Deal

EQT signed a definitive agreement Monday, Oct. 26, to buy fellow Appalachian Basin producer Range Resources. Range shareholders will receive 0.987 EQT shares for each Range share they hold.

That values Range's equity at $12.83 billion, or $54.91 per share, a premium of about 20.6% to Range's Friday close, according to a Reuters calculation. Including debt, the combined company carries a pro forma enterprise value of more than $50 billion.

Both boards approved the deal unanimously. EQT shareholders will own about 73% of the combined company and Range shareholders about 27%.

What the combined company looks like

The companies say the merged business will produce more than 9 billion cubic feet equivalent per day, making it the largest U.S. gas producer. It will hold more than 30 years of drilling inventory across nearly 3 million net acres and more than 3,700 miles of midstream infrastructure.

EQT expects $325 million in annual base synergies within two years. It sees a path to more than $600 million over the long term from development and infrastructure optimization and better marketing margins on gas, LNG and natural gas liquids.

The company also said the deal lowers its unlevered free cash flow breakeven to below $2 per million BTU. It projects about $20 billion in cumulative free cash flow over five years at recent strip prices.

EQT's current management team will run the combined company, and headquarters stay in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. Two Range representatives, including Range President and CEO Dennis Degner, will join EQT's board at closing.

"This transaction brings together two of the highest-quality, longest-duration asset bases in North America and creates a company uniquely positioned for the next era of natural gas," said EQT President and CEO Toby Rice.

The demand bet

The pitch rests on rising U.S. gas consumption. The Energy Information Administration forecasts domestic use climbing from 91.9 billion cubic feet per day in 2025 to 94.3 bcfd in 2027, driven by LNG exports and power demand from AI data centers. The EIA's longer-range scenarios have LNG exports more than doubling from 14.9 bcfd in 2025 to over 30 bcfd by 2050.

Rabobank has estimated U.S. power demand could rise 20% by 2030, up from roughly 0.5% annual growth in recent years.

Rice said the larger resource base positions EQT as "the operator of choice for premium, long-term supply arrangements." That fits a strategy EQT has already started. In July the company announced a 10-year supply agreement with Competitive Power Ventures for its Shay Energy Center, and it has signed an LNG offtake contract. EQT also absorbed Equitrans Midstream in 2024.

How the market reacted

In premarket trading, Range was up 10.8% at $50.42 and EQT was down 3.3%. By 12:41 p.m. ET, EQT traded at $53.80, down $1.83 or 3.29%, on volume of 13.6 million shares against a 6.9 million average. Range was up 15.52%.

The exchange ratio is fixed. The $54.91 headline value was set off pre-deal prices, and what Range holders actually receive moves with EQT's stock. At $53.80, 0.987 shares is worth about $53.10.

The case against the price

Not everyone reads this as a clean win for EQT holders. One market analysis from Gokhshtein notes that EQT stock is down 2.66% over the past year and 3.0% year to date, weighed down by a 29.2% second-quarter revenue decline tied to lower natural gas prices. Range, by contrast, is up 34.5% over the past year and 42.7% year to date, helped by record premiums on natural gas liquids exports and a 32% cut in net debt.

That gap, the analysis argues, raises the question of whether EQT is paying a fair price for a better-performing asset or overpaying near a cyclical peak. It adds that combining into one larger producer removes diversification if gas prices soften, and that the "consolidation into strength" case works only if LNG demand arrives as projected.

The same analysis points to history. Over the decade from Oct. 25, 2016, EQT returned 61.04% and Range 50.82%, against 255.93% for the S&P 500.

EQT's side of the ledger is the cost position. Management says the lower breakeven keeps the company profitable through price swings, and it points to contracted demand from power generators and LNG buyers as insulation from spot-price volatility.

Broader energy backdrop

The deal lands in a volatile energy market. Nearly eight months into the U.S. conflict with Iran, CNN's analysis of AAA data shows the average gasoline price during President Trump's second term now exceeds the average during the Biden years. Gasoline is a different market from the Appalachian natural gas EQT and Range sell, and nothing in the announcement ties the merger to the war.

What comes next

The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and votes by shareholders of both companies. The companies have not disclosed a date for either vote. Investors will decide whether EQT shareholders, who watched their shares slide on the announcement, back a fixed-ratio deal that hands Range holders a premium.