EQT (EQT) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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Date

Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026 at 10 a.m. ET

Call participants

• President and Chief Executive Officer — Toby Rice
• Chief Financial Officer — Jeremy Knop
• Managing Director, Investor and Strategy — Cameron Horwitz

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Takeaways

• Free cash flow -- $2.5 billion attributable to EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT) for the year, with 2025 NYMEX natural gas averaging $3.40 per MMBtu.
• Compression project performance -- Compression projects achieved a 15% greater-than-expected uplift in base production and positively impacted well productivity.
• Well cost efficiency -- 2025 well cost per lateral foot decreased by 13% year over year and was 6% below the company's internal forecast.
• LOE reduction -- Per-unit lease operating expense (LOE) was nearly 15% below internal expectations and approximately 50% lower than the peer average.
• Marketing optimization -- "The cumulative benefits of our marketing optimization resulted in more than $200 million of free cash flow uplift last year relative to guidance."
• Fourth quarter free cash flow -- Nearly $750 million attributable to EQT Corporation, approximately $200 million above consensus expectations.
• Debt position -- Year-end net debt was just under $7.7 billion, including $425 million in working capital usage; company expects to exit Q1 2026 with less than $6 billion net debt.
• Hedging activity -- Company is nearly 40% hedged in 2026 with an average floor price of approximately $4.30 per MMBtu and ceiling of $6.30.
• Production forecast -- 2026 outlook projects 2.275–2.375 Tcfe, supported by operational efficiency and well productivity.
• Maintenance capital budget -- 2026 budget set at $2.07–$2.21 billion, including the full-year impact of the Olympus acquisition.
• Growth investments -- First $600 million of post-dividend free cash flow in 2026 allocated to high-return projects (compression, water infrastructure, Clarington Connector, and leasing).
• MVP ownership -- EQT Corporation to increase ownership in Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) Mainline and MVP Boost to approximately 53% at a purchase price equating to about 9x adjusted EBITDA and a 12% internal rate of return, funding approximately $115 million in total consideration.
• 2026 financial guidance -- Adjusted EBITDA guided at approximately $6.5 billion and free cash flow at $3.5 billion, including $600 million in elective growth investments.
• Five-year outlook -- Cumulative free cash flow projected to exceed $16 billion over the next five years.
• Operational achievements -- Fastest quarterly completion pace and most lateral footage drilled in a 24- and 48-hour period set in the fourth quarter.
• Winter Storm Fern response -- 97.2% deliverability achieved during the event, outperforming Appalachian peers by a factor of two.
• MVP peak utilization -- Mountain Valley Pipeline flowed 6% above its 2 Bcf per day nameplate capacity during Winter Storm Fern.
• Storage levels -- Company forecasts U.S. storage exiting winter at about 1.65 Tcf assuming normal weather to March; Eastern storage levels now 13% below five-year average.
• Basis improvement -- "now priced at a $0.70 discount to Henry Hub, which is a $0.50 improvement compared to the last few years."
• 2026 levered breakeven -- "the market. So that levered number is falling towards the unlevered number pretty quickly."
• Clarington Connector -- Pipeline increased to 400 MMcf per day, intended to move natural gas from Pennsylvania into Ohio and capitalize on demand growth as Utica inventory declines post-2030.
• Strategic leasing -- Company leased approximately 100,000 net acres since 2020, effectively replacing 60% of development and expanding core inventory runway.
• Infrastructure investment ROE -- Yeah. On the infrastructure we have for 2026, we can look at a free cash flow yield, like, holistically, somewhere between 20%–30% across the projects. That is how we think about it.
• Operational scale -- Company’s platform supports productive capacity up to 12.5 Bcf per day, subject to demand and infrastructure build-out.
• Combo development -- Transitioned to simultaneous drilling of 20–30 wells in multi-site campaigns, underpinning operational efficiency improvements.

Summary

EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT) reported significant financial and operational outperformance, delivering $2.5 billion in free cash flow for 2025 and citing repeated efficiency gains across its cost structure, production, and well performance. The company sharply reduced per-unit LOE and well costs, set basin-wide operational records, and leveraged its marketing strategy and infrastructure integration to capture value from market volatility, most notably during Winter Storm Fern and recent gas price spikes. Management outlined a 2026 strategy centered on disciplined maintenance capital, targeted growth investments, further deleveraging, and ongoing infrastructure expansion—including increased MVP ownership and the upscaled Clarington Connector pipeline to address structural demand growth in the power and data center sectors.

• The company’s hedging approach preserved significant upside exposure during volatile periods, positioning EQT Corporation to benefit from both seasonal cash price surges and fundamentals-driven price improvement through 2026 and beyond.
• Forthcoming cash flow is earmarked for high-return internal infrastructure and efficiency projects before considering opportunistic buybacks or further deleveraging, supporting management’s claim that cash flow compounding is structurally embedded in the business.
• Management's macro outlook anticipates tightening supply and demand, highlighting persistent storage constraints, rising LNG exports, concentrated power sector demand increases, and improved Appalachian basis differentials.
• Management confirmed a strategic commitment to pairing upstream production growth with verified structural demand, reinforced by substantial investments in pipelines, water infrastructure, and expansion of core acreage.

Industry glossary

• MVP (Mountain Valley Pipeline): A major interstate natural gas pipeline transporting Appalachian gas to Southeast U.S. markets.
• LOE (Lease Operating Expense): The average cost per unit to operate and maintain oil and gas wells and related facilities.
• Basis differential: The pricing difference between regional gas hubs (e.g., M2 or Station 165) and the national benchmark (Henry Hub).
• Combo development: Simultaneous drilling and completion of multiple wells at adjacent or sequential locations to maximize operational efficiency.
• Clarington Connector: EQT Corporation’s 400 MMcf per day pipeline project connecting Pennsylvania gas to Ohio and key demand centers.
• MVP Boost: An expansion project to increase throughput on the Mountain Valley Pipeline system.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. My name is Krista, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome you to the EQT Corporation Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question at that time, simply press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. And if you would like to withdraw your question, again, star one. Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference over to Cameron Horwitz, Managing Director, Investor and Strategy. Cameron?

Please go ahead.

Cameron Horwitz: Good morning, and thank you for joining our fourth quarter and year end 2025 Earnings Results Conference Call. With me today are Toby Rice, President and Chief Executive Officer and Jeremy Knop, Chief Financial Officer. In a moment, Toby and Jeremy will present their prepared remarks with a question and answer session to follow. An updated investor presentation has been posted to the Investor Relations portion of our website and we will reference certain slides during today's discussion. A replay of today's call will be available on our website beginning this evening. I would like to remind you that today's call may contain forward-looking statements.

Actual results and future events could materially differ from these forward-looking statements because of factors described in yesterday's earnings release and our investor presentation, the Risk Factors section of our most recent Form 10, and subsequent filings we make with the SEC. We do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements. Today's call also contains certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to our most recent earnings release and investor presentation for important disclosures regarding such measures, including reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP financial measures. With that, I will turn the call over to Toby. Thanks, Cameron, and good morning, everyone. 2025 was another stellar year for EQT Corporation.

One in which we were able to clearly demonstrate the power of our platform. Over the past several years, we have been intentionally building scale, vertical integration, operational excellence, and financial strength. That work is showing up in measurable ways, in our well performance and our cost structure, in our free cash flow generation, and in how we performed under pressure. This morning, I will walk through four areas that highlight that platform strength. First, our operating performance is the foundation of our platform. In 2025, we saw continued structural improvements across operational drivers, reinforcing the durability of our maintenance capital program. Second, our financial strength brings power to the platform.

In 2025, we translated operational outperformance directly into meaningful free cash flow generation, allowing us to fortify our balance sheet and increase financial flexibility, providing a strong foundation to capture value opportunistically during market dislocations. Third, Winter Storm Fern. Recent extreme weather events provide an opportunity for us to showcase both the operational strength of our platform and the value creation power that our scale and integration delivers for our stakeholders. I will wrap up by discussing the future of our platform with our 2026 plan. Our budget is underpinned by a disciplined maintenance capital program while beginning to invest the first dollars of post-dividend free cash flow into selective high-return growth investments.

It is a continuation of the strategy that has driven our transformation, staying laser focused on capital efficiency and cost structure, while making smart investments at the right time to maximize per share value creation. Now let me dive deeper into our operating results. Production consistently topped expectations throughout 2025, driven by compression project outperformance and robust well productivity. Compression projects executed last year generated 15% greater than expected base production uplift and positively impacted well productivity. In fact, third-party data shows that EQT Corporation saw the strongest improvement in well performance of any major operator in Appalachia last year. Our tactical approach to volume curtailments and marketing optimization resulted in price realization outperformance throughout 2025.

The cumulative benefits of our marketing optimization resulted in more than $200 million of free cash flow uplift last year relative to guidance, highlighting the tangible benefit to shareholders from this effort. EQT Corporation's position as the second largest marketer of natural gas in the U.S., ahead of all upstream and midstream peers, coupled with persistent price volatility, means our marketing optimization efforts should have recurring positive impact on financial performance going forward. Operating costs and capital spending also beat expectations last year, which represents the return on our water infrastructure investments, midstream cost optimization, and upstream efficiency gains.

Our team set multiple EQT Corporation and basin-wide operational records yet again during the fourth quarter, including our fastest quarterly completion pace on record and the most lateral footage drilled in a 24- and 48-hour period. Efficiency gains resulted in our average 2025 well cost per lateral foot coming in 13% lower year over year and 6% below our internal forecast coming into the year.

Operator: Additionally,

Toby Rice: Per-unit LOE was nearly 15% below our expectations last year, and approximately 50% lower than the peer average. The cumulative result of our operational outperformance delivered $2.5 billion of free cash flow attributable to EQT Corporation in 2025 with NYMEX natural gas prices averaging approximately $3.40 per MMBtu for the year. Our free cash flow generation significantly outperformed both consensus and internal expectations, underscoring the power of our low-cost integrated platform and our ability to consistently deliver differentiated shareholder value. Importantly, our ability to deliver was not just visible in our financial results. It was demonstrated operationally in one of the most challenging environments in recent times during Winter Storm Fern.

I want to take a moment to recognize our upstream, midstream, and marketing teams for their outstanding coordination and execution during the storm. The team's effort helped keep millions of American homes heated and businesses running, while also allowing us to capture peak cash market pricing during periods of elevated demand. This is a great example of how EQT Corporation's integrated operations, resilient infrastructure, and commercial alignment come together to deliver differentiated value for both our customers and our shareholders. Winter Storm Fern also provides a stark reminder for just how important natural gas infrastructure is to the reliability of the U.S. energy system.

During the storm, our Mountain Valley Pipeline flowed 6% above its 2 Bcf per day nameplate capacity, which effectively backstops 14 gigawatts of power generation across the Southeast region, or enough energy to heat more than 10 million homes. And yet, even with this capacity flowing full, cash prices at Transco Station 165 spiked over $130 per MMBtu, highlighting a system that remains structurally constrained. These price signals are unmistakable. The country needs more pipeline infrastructure and a permitting framework that allows industry to get back to building critical infrastructure again. Expanding natural gas infrastructure is not optional. It is essential to delivering reliable, affordable energy to U.S. consumers and supporting long-term economic growth.

However, when supply is constrained due to lack of infrastructure, prices rise and affordability suffers. Luckily, the solution is simple. We need to get back to building and connecting low-cost natural gas supply to the demand centers that need it most. Simply put, if we build more, America pays less. And at EQT Corporation, we are not just advocating for infrastructure. We are investing in it. We recently elected to exercise our option to purchase additional interest in MVP Mainline and MVP Boost from an affiliate of Con Edison. The interest in MVP Mainline will be purchased by EQT Corporation’s midstream joint venture with Black and the interest in the MVP Boost expansion will be acquired directly by EQT Corporation.

EQT Corporation is expected to fund approximately $115 million of the total consideration for the acquisition. Upon close, our ownership in MVP Mainline and MVP Boost will increase to approximately 53%. We estimate the purchase price equates to roughly 9x adjusted EBITDA and delivers a low-risk 12% IRR to EQT Corporation inclusive of MVP Boost growth capex and expansion, which is highly attractive given the long-duration annuity cash flow stream underpinned by 20-year contracts. Shifting to our 2026 outlook, we are initiating a production forecast of 2.275 to 2.375 Tcfe, with continued outperformance of operational efficiency and well productivity likely to drive upside bias to this range.

As it relates to our investments, we have established a maintenance capital budget of $2.07 to $2.21 billion, which includes a full-year impact from the Olympus acquisition. With our balance sheet deleveraging nearly complete and total debt rapidly approaching $5 billion, we are electing to ramp up investments in our high-return growth projects. We are allocating the first $600 million of post-dividend free cash flow to these projects in 2026, which is largely comprised of compression projects, water infrastructure, the Clarington Connector pipeline into Ohio, and strategic leasing.

Our investments in these growth projects are expected to strengthen our platform, lowering future maintenance capital, reducing LOE, improving price differentials, replenishing inventory at attractive prices, and setting the stage for sustainable upstream growth in the future. Not only do our growth projects generate attractive returns, but they continue to fundamentally improve the characteristics of our business and provide EQT Corporation a differentiated way to compound capital for shareholders. At recent strip pricing, we expect to generate 2026 adjusted EBITDA attributable to EQT Corporation of approximately $6.5 billion and 2026 free cash flow attributable to EQT Corporation of $3.5 billion, which includes the impact of approximately $600 million in growth investments.

Prior to the investments in these elective projects, free cash flow attributable to EQT Corporation would be over $4 billion. Cumulative free cash flow attributable to EQT Corporation over the next five years is projected to total more than $16 billion, highlighting the tremendous value proposition embedded in EQT Corporation stock. I will now turn the call over to Jeremy. Thanks, Toby. Our strong execution resulted in nearly $750 million free cash flow attributable to EQT Corporation in the fourth quarter, approximately $200 million above consensus expectations. This marks the sixth quarter in a row where we have exceeded consensus free cash flow estimates, with an average beat of 40%.

We outperformed across every financial metric during the fourth quarter, with strong price differentials again underscoring the recurring value created by our gas marketing capabilities. We exited the year with net debt of just under $7.7 billion inclusive of $425 million of working capital usage during the quarter. Recent gas price strength on the back of Winter Storm Fern, combined with our opportunistic approach to hedging, should drive historic results for EQT Corporation in the first quarter, with the potential for free cash flow in the month of February alone to approach $1 billion after we sold approximately 98% of our production at first-of-month pricing, which settled at $7.22 per MMBtu for M2 and $7.46 per MMBtu for Henry Hub.

We estimate January and February performance already exceeds consensus Q1 free cash flow expectations by more than 30%, setting the stage for record free cash flow generation in the first quarter and for full-year 2026. As a result, we expect to exit the first quarter with less than $6 billion of net debt. This rapid deleveraging enhances our capital allocation flexibility. We are well positioned to fund high-return infrastructure growth projects, continue our track record of base dividend growth, and accumulate cash to opportunistically repurchase our shares.

The benefits of our opportunistic hedging strategy were on display as we came into the fourth quarter, with minimal production hedged, purposely leaving significant upside optionality into winter given the likelihood of asymmetric upside if cold weather materialized. We tactically added collars and captured call option skew into sharp price rallies in the fourth quarter and over the past few weeks, including adding a company record amount of hedges in a single day in December as the market peaked. With these tactical adds, we are now nearly 40% hedged in 2026, with an average floor price of roughly $4.30 per MMBtu and an average ceiling of $6.30.

For Q2 and Q3, we are approximately 20% hedged, with $3.50 floors and nearly $5 ceilings. And we are also roughly 20% hedged for Q4 with $3.75 floors and $5.15 ceilings. This hedge position provides downside protection, ensuring we can fund all of our capital allocation priorities, while maintaining upside exposure should prices continue to strengthen in the summer. Turning to fundamentals. The natural gas market has tightened significantly over the past six weeks. Winter to date is 5% colder than normal, driving significant demand on top of production disruptions. This cold weather tightened inventories by 225 Bcf compared to prior expectations and reduced inventories below the five-year average.

We forecast storage exiting winter around 1.65 Tcf under normal weather conditions through March. With LNG exports continuing to grow, the U.S. gas storage situation in 2027 looks even tighter. As a result, we anticipate seeing both 2026 and 2027 prices rising further to ensure inventories remain within a comfortable range. Importantly for EQT Corporation, cold weather this winter has been concentrated in the East. Eastern storage levels are now 13% below the five-year average. Basis differentials later this decade continue to strengthen on the back of growing in-basin demand, with 2029 basis, as an example, now trading at a $0.70 discount to Henry Hub, which is a $0.50 improvement compared to the last few years.

From a global perspective, fundamentals are also improving more than consensus realizes. European storage levels are well below normal, following robust winter withdrawals. Current projections point to Europe exiting winter with storage at the lowest level since 2022, and that is despite the surge in LNG supply since then. Beyond LNG, power demand is accelerating faster than previously anticipated. Natural gas turbine orders have increased meaningfully, and once units ordered since 2023 are fully commissioned, they represent roughly 13 Bcf per day of demand in the United States alone, providing clear visibility to substantial incremental gas burn moving towards start-up.

While not all these turbines are tied directly to data centers, meaningful portions are connected to new large load projects including AI and cloud infrastructure. Separately, we have line of sight to approximately 45 gigawatts of data center capacity currently under construction, including 12 gigawatts in our core operating footprint. Together, turbine backlogs and data center construction activity reinforce the structural demand growth that is building across the power sector. Given the location of this load and the depth of our resource base, we believe EQT Corporation is positioned to capture an outsized share of this incremental demand.

To wrap up, I want to provide additional color on the growth projects that we chose to include in our 2026 budget, which will be funded with the first dollars of post-dividend free cash flow. Starting with compression, the well outperformance we have seen since acquiring Equitrans motivated us to accelerate compression investments in 2026. The benefits of these investments show up as stronger base production and improved well productivity. Over time, these benefits compound, reducing decline rates and improving capital efficiency. On water infrastructure, our investments in 2026 will connect EQT Corporation’s legacy water systems with the water network we acquired from Tug Hill.

This interconnection will create an integrated water system throughout EQT Corporation’s operating footprint and one of the largest water networks in the country. This expanded connectivity is projected to improve uptime, reduce reliance on trucking, lower LOE, and improve frac efficiency. The Clarington Connector is a 400 MMcf per day pipeline that will move natural gas from Pennsylvania into Ohio, allowing more of our gas to reach data center demand and the receipt points of several interstate pipelines. We expect the Ohio dry gas Utica inventory to be largely depleted by the end of this decade, driving stronger pricing in the Ohio region.

This pipeline perfectly positions EQT Corporation to begin backfilling these volumes and create another avenue to capture premium pricing. On land acquisitions, we plan to continue expanding our leasehold position at attractive prices. Since 2020, we have leased approximately 100,000 net acres, effectively replacing 60% of our development and perpetuating our runway of core inventory. The return on these investments will show up in our financial statements through higher production, lower capital spending and LOE, higher third-party revenue, and better price realizations, driving top-line growth while continuing to reduce our cost structure.

The financial outperformance we saw in 2025 was a direct result of similar investments we made in prior years, giving us confidence that our growth initiatives will translate to tangible free cash flow generation and differentiated shareholder value creation. In closing, 2025 was a stellar year for EQT Corporation and a clear demonstration of the power of the platform that we have strategically constructed. We delivered record operational results, drove material free cash flow outperformance, and significantly strengthened our balance sheet.

Winter Storm Fern demonstrated the power of EQT Corporation’s integrated model in real time, as our teams worked seamlessly across operations, midstream, and commodities trading functions to keep natural gas flowing and provide heat for millions of Americans during one of the most challenging winter events in recent history. Our strong results are not just incremental. They compound over time to create exponential value. Every element of our business is feeding another, driving steady and significant performance gains. We are extremely proud of what our teams delivered in 2025, but we are only getting started, and the momentum we built across the organization gives us tremendous confidence in what lies ahead for EQT Corporation.

With that, I would now like to open the call to questions.

Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. We also ask that you limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. For any additional questions, please re-queue. Your first question comes from Doug Leggate with Wolfe Research. Please go ahead.

Doug Leggate: Good morning, guys. Thanks for all your updates. I guess I would like to focus to try and summarize everything you have said today to one issue, which is the trend in your portfolio breakeven and sustaining capital. Can you give us an idea where you think that sits on a levered basis for 2026. On my follow-up, is the deleveraging comment you made, Toby, is about I think you said as we get to the end of our you know, I do not know if it was not about the end of our deleveraging process, but it seems that you are potentially generating a ton of free cash flow as you have indicated for 2026.

What is the priority for that free cash flow? Does that continue to go to balance sheet as well? And by the way, I will give a quick shout-out to your tremendous videos over the storm. We enjoyed those.

Toby Rice: Alright. Thanks, Doug. Yeah. On the last question, the capital allocation, you know, the deleveraging has been rapid, and we are in a great position right now where we sit. And I think we are all the confidence in the world we will bust through our $5 billion long-term target. I think we are going to continue to look to pay down debt over and above that. But as we mentioned and you see with our 2026 plan, first free cash flow is going to be going towards the sustainable growth projects that we have on the infrastructure. That will be a theme as long as we have high-quality projects put on the schedule. We will continue to do that.

But, certainly, leverage is still the priority. We will continue to expand on that. And I think the punch line is we can start thinking about being opportunistic in the future. And that day has come a lot sooner than what people expected.

Operator: Jeremy, do you have any color?

Doug Leggate: Were you going to do color on the cost structure, 2026?

Jeremy Knop: Yeah. Doug, if you want to think about breakeven cost structure, I mean, we just like we are doing with our capital expenses, you have the maintenance side of our capex and you have this growth side. I think for comparability purposes, as we think about free cash flow, really compared to peers in the market and also as it relates to breakevens, we look at it really at that maintenance level. Everything beyond that is elective. So when we assess that, we are around $2.20 on a levered basis. That levered number is coming down rapidly this year, and you will see us soon repay a bunch of debt we have outstanding in the market.

So that levered number is falling towards the unlevered number pretty quickly.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Neil Mehta with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Neil Mehta: Yes. Thank you so much. You know, Toby and Jeremy, your perspective on Fern was helpful. I mean, maybe you could talk about quantifying the uplift associated with it. You gave us some disclosures in the release and your comments. And then, just lessons learned from Fern because I think volatility is going to be constant on the go forward. So how are you ensuring that your marketing team is going to continue to be on the right side of these type of events.

Toby Rice: Yeah. So Fern really was a great example of the culture we built here and our ability to respond to stimulus. Our company value evolution on full display, executing the environment we are in. It is important for people to know we started planning for Winter Storm Fern back in the summer. And we were making preparation for 98%. That is our target. During the storm, it was 97.2%. We got even more excited when we saw how that benchmarked versus Appalachian peers and we saw a two times factor outperformance on that front.

So it has certainly been an area of the organization where we really wanted to dial up the intensity, and this team proven that they actually delivered. Here is my takeaway on what we see, you know, volatility is here in natural gas. And I think people can have an attitude that they try and shy away from volatility and try and protect against it. We are trying to take advantage of volatility, and we think results that we generated in Winter Storm Fern are going to be future opportunities that we see going forward, and this is a sign, and this will persist until we get back to getting infrastructure built to debottleneck these markets.

Until then, we are going to be able to be opportunistic and take advantage of this world-class commercial team we have here at EQT Corporation.

Jeremy Knop: And, Neil, I would add to that too. I mean, our commodities team is focused on two things primarily. First, focused on balances, or really minimizing imbalances is probably the best way to put it. And that really comes down to extreme coordination with our operations teams and our control centers to make sure that we know exactly how much volume is coming into the system so we can keep our sales in balance. The second is arbitrage capture. You know, a really good commodities team is not able to focus on things like arbitrage capture if they are constantly trying to figure out where volumes are.

And during winter events like storm, when our operations teams are delivering and we have good visibility into both the midstream operations and upstream operations, they are able to dedicate their time to capturing that opportunity. But, I mean, look.

Some of the trades that we executed during January and early February were absolutely outstanding, making sure volumes got to where they needed to be, shutting down all of our Gulf capacity and reselling it in-basin when prices were $30–$45, making sure we had full deliverability to our MVP capacity, selling it at, you know, $130 per MMBtu for certain days, making sure that we have confidence in the volumes that will show up in February and being able to nominate at levels like we did at 98%, which is probably an all-time high for EQT Corporation.

But, again, when we see the opportunity to sell gas on a month-forward basis in the mid to low sevens, or to sell into Station 165 at over $11 for a month, you have to be able to depend on your operating teams to do that and capture the value presented. That is what we are able to do uniquely at EQT Corporation through the platform we have put together.

Toby Rice: Right.

Jeremy Knop: Thank you both. And then the follow-up is just on the gas macro. I wonder if you could address two parts of it. One is we have seen production surprise, I think, relative to consensus expectations, Toby, something that you outlined was likely to happen at our conference in January. I think that is materializing. Has that affected the way you are thinking about the outlook for U.S. gas? And then the follow-up is around M2 basis. You guys have a differentiated point of view that M2 basis futures need to continue to tighten up, something that we are seeing some evidence of.

So if you could talk about the U.S. profile for gas, but then specifically the M2 basis profile as well. That would be helpful.

Toby Rice: Yeah. Yeah. We got a lot of questions when we said that we saw U.S. supply exiting 2026 closer to that 114, 115 Bcf a day range. That is still our view. I think things we are looking at are going to be these Permian pipes, when they come online and how much they will be full on the supply side. And then, obviously, people are pretty well read into what is going to happen on the demand side with LNG, and the power story is going to show up.

I would say probably, you know, what is new for us on a macro perspective, the biggest catalyst that is hitting energy markets right now is the public’s concern over energy prices and affordability.

Jeremy Knop: And we think that this narrative is only going to continue to strengthen, and that is going to create even more opportunities to get infrastructure built. And with our platform, that will create opportunities for EQT Corporation.

Jeremy Knop: Yeah. And I guess to your question on M2 basis, we have been talking about this for, like, a year. If you look back at what we put out quarterly, and that has continued to move our direction. We came into this year with only about 35% of our local sales hedged because we have had this broader thematic view that basis should improve. Historically, we probably would have had about 90% hedged, that is something we normally do not openly disclose. But, again, it is a tactical repositioning that we have intentionally executed on over the past year or so.

And, again, we are also leaning more on our physical curtailments in those down markets, as opposed to feeling like we need to financially protect ourselves. And that just provides a better sort of all-in market solution and allows EQT Corporation to save its volumes for when the market really needs them, like during the winter time. Makes sense. Thanks, guys.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Arun Jayaram with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Arun Jayaram: Good morning, gentlemen. Jeremy and Toby, I wanted to see if you could talk about how you see your strategic growth capex evolving over the next couple of years as we think about projects like MVP Boost, Southgate, the Clarington Connector. But how do you see that evolving over the next couple of years? It is a great question. And that is, Arun, why we were so intentionally trying to buy maintenance capital, which I think is the true measure of year-over-year performance and just efficiency in the base business, versus where we are choosing to elect to reinvest capital and create additional value.

You know, we are trying to create more and more of these opportunities, again, across our integrated platform. I think we see more than most companies do across the value chain. A year ago, I probably could not have told you about half these projects that we have in our budget this year. So I have no doubt the teams will continue to originate a lot more really good deals. But right now, I think beyond what we have in the queue for this year, the focus is really on the Mountain Valley projects that we have talked about, both Southgate and Boost. Those are probably the biggest spend items as we move into 2027.

There are a number of things we are working on that I think are pretty exciting, but, you know, that is all got to come to fruition. But our look. Our goal is when we have not a lot of debt, if we are generating $3–$4 billion of free cash flow before growth capex, you know, say we invest the first $450–$500 million to a base dividend. Next $500 of that or so, maybe more, like this year, depending on the quality of the opportunity, we think it is important for that to go into some sort of organic growth project.

And, you know, importantly and I think to differentiate against what you hear from some of our more direct upstream peers, there is a way to grow value and free cash flow that does not include just drilling more wells or drilling less wells. A lot more to it than that, and that is really what we are trying to underscore and how we are trying to differentiate how we reinvest capital. And when you step back and think about the right way to really, in our view, step into something like growth at some point down the road, there are certain prerequisites to that.

In our mind, you have to be the lowest-cost producer, which is a box we have certainly checked. It is getting down to a very low to no leverage profile, which, again, we are very rapidly executing on. But I think most critically, it is partnering and creating real structural demand for those volumes, and that is what you see us doing through the MVP expansion, through the Clarington Connector project, through the in-basin demand opportunities that we are connecting to with our midstream platform.

Jeremy Knop: Once all those boxes are checked, that is when we would think about growth potentially beyond the infrastructure. But this infrastructure is really paving the road for us to get there. And at the same time, I mean, it is the type of returns that get us really excited, where we are not taking the your classic commodity price risk and chasing prices. Great. Thanks, Jeremy. And just a follow-up is in terms of your investments in compression, it looks like in this year, you are going to be investing about $180 million in terms of pressure reduction projects and gathering. Where are you in terms of the life cycle of investments, kind of in compression?

Toby Rice: Yeah, Arun. These projects will get us pretty close to catching up and getting our systems operating at pressures that would be steady state. So future compression projects would probably show up in the maintenance capex portion of our budgeting.

Arun Jayaram: Great. Thanks, Toby.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Betty Jiang with Barclays. Please go ahead. Good morning. I want to start with a question on your gas sales strategy. Jeremy, you mentioned that you are selling 98% at first of month. Can you just unpack, like, what would be the ideal amount that you sell first of month? How much you want to sell into the cash market? I am asking this because as you said, the volatility gas market is only going to get more volatile, which means that you want to get more exposure to cash markets or prices, whereas we have seen this winter.

So how does that influence how you sell your gas and how much of the gas gets dedicated to first of month versus cash market.

Jeremy Knop: Yeah. Betty, it is a great question. So we have a fundamental team internally, and we try to always have a view. We are not ever trying to pick price. What we are really trying to understand is where the asymmetries sit in the potential outcome. If you think about effectively what first-of-month pricing means coming out of bid week, really the market’s best estimate of what those 30–31 days over the next month will average out to in the cash market. Over the long term, there should not really be a statistical advantage electing to one or the other, but one provides more stability when you elect most of the volume first of month.

Otherwise, your traders are having to be in the market and clear a lot of volume every day. But, look, when we looked at February as an example, and this was a very conscious decision we made, and we assessed what was going on and effectively said, fundamentally, in our view, you probably would have had to have one of the coldest Februaries in the past hundred years to justify pricing being at that level.

And so we simply said, is that really a bet we are willing to make and leave that open exposure, or are we willing to take off an amount of value that, if we are producing, call it, 200 Bcf a month, and we have $5 to $6 of margin baked in, do we just take the money and de-risk it? I think your typical producer is selling probably 75% to 80% first of month, and the rest of it is left open as operational flexibility for downtime. I think EQT Corporation is unique in the sense that we have so much control over the value chain and visibility into operations due to the vertical integration.

We can dial that up to a higher level. And so when you see opportunities like this, we can take that value off the table. But just for perspective, if you look at where Gas Daily has settled month to date and where balance-of-month pricing is, I mean, you are averaging, like, about $3.90 at Henry Hub and mid-$3s at M2. If we had not made that election, our average pricing for the month would be several dollars below where we elected to be.

So it is hard to overemphasize how much value there is to be able to take off the table if you can be on top of this sort of stuff and have the visibility that we do. And, again, going back to what Toby said, our real goal is to be more of, I guess, more like an antifragile philosophy where we benefit when there is more volatility. You saw it in Q4 in October. We did with our curtailment strategy, we were able to really take advantage of awesome opportunities, squeeze extra margin out.

And then the market got volatile on the other end of the spectrum in January, and again I think you will see us squeeze an immense amount of value out of the market by positioning around volatility and profiting from that rather than just playing defense.

Betty Jiang: Very helpful context. Thank you. My follow-up is on growth. In Toby’s comments, you guys talked about the midstream investments setting the stage for sustained upstream growth. And I just want to ask about your philosophy around that because we are seeing more volumes and growth from other operators growing into the local market. EQT Corporation has one of the lowest-cost production basins. If you do not grow, you cede market share to others. So how do you think about balancing growth? And I am a bit conflicted myself thinking about how much you should be growing in this environment too.

Toby Rice: Yeah. I think philosophically, it is important to note that, you know, I think we have learned what happens when you set activity levels chasing price signals. That has not typically worked out too well. So, philosophically, we have shifted more towards we will respond to demand. And then as far as ceding market share is concerned, a lot of this demand that we are meeting, actually, all of it, is going to be connected through EQT Corporation infrastructure with EQT Corporation gas supply deals. So I feel like we have got a really good look at what the market needs and our ability to supply that. But, you know, the infrastructure needs to get built.

These projects need to get built. That demand needs to show up. And that is probably a 2027–2028 time frame for us. So we are focused on the infrastructure right now, securing the demand, and then that will be an option for us in the future.

Operator: Got it. Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Kalei Akamine with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Kalei Akamine: Hey, good morning guys. Thank you for taking my question. First question is on MVP. Going back to slide number 10, it shows really strong performance on the mainline above nameplate capacity. Just kind of curious what you guys are learning about the effect of capacity on that system and if there are any learnings that we can extrapolate to the expansion projects.

Toby Rice: Yeah. As far as learning on, like, total flow potential, I mean, it will be dependent on weather conditions. I mean, colder weather will be able to flow more volumes there. So, I mean, this new record of over 2.1 Bcf a day sort of shows where that limit is. But I think more importantly is looking at the price on that chart. There is a tremendous amount of demand. There needs to be more volume brought into this area, and we think Boost is going to be a great project for us to address that market need. And we anticipate these projects having, you know, pretty high utilization.

Kalei Akamine: Thank you for that. The follow-up is on Clarington Connector. That project was upsized from 300 MMcf per day to 400 MMcf per day.

Toby Rice: Just kind of curious what is behind that design decision.

Jeremy Knop: It is demand pull? And then once at Clarington, can you talk about what market options you have to clear that gas? Should we think about REX somewhere in the Midwest? And are there any opportunities for premium pricing? Maybe a direct supply agreement on top of that? Yeah. Kalei, I think you are onto something. I mean, it is a couple things, and I really think that Ohio market opportunity in the next five to ten years is one of the greatest ones for us.

Not only is it the new demand you are talking about, you have a lot of the FT contracts on, like, Rover, on REX, on Nexus rolling over in the next five to ten years. And at the same time, in our view, I mean, also owning Ohio Utica gas assets, we really do not see much inventory there beyond, like, 2030. So we view that as a gas play that will go into structural decline.

And so we are sitting in there right on the doorstep to it with a huge infrastructure footprint, and I think the ability to build pipes directly into that region and allow those pipes to pull gas back from our much deeper inventory base on the Pennsylvania side will not only help us capture premium pricing, but actually set the stage for us to grow volumes and do so in a structurally sustainable way like Toby just talked about.

So I think this is part of us kind of looking ahead with the longer-term view and positioning around that longer-term opportunity, but I think there are big-time ways for us to win on both pricing and also volume to drive top-line growth in the coming years. Much appreciated. Thank you, guys.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Lloyd Byrne with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Lloyd Byrne: Hey, team. Thanks for taking the calls, and congrats on capturing the volatility. I know it has been a focus for you guys. I want to circle back to Betty’s comment on growth a little bit. And I know, Toby, you have talked about what a Bcf means to your free cash, but if I look at consensus, there is just no growth that people have in the model. And I was just wondering, like, when do we start to see this growth emerge? And we are looking at almost five to eight B’s of in-basin demand.

I do not know if you guys feel the same way, but when do we hear more on Homer City, shipping ports, coal retirements, manufacturing plants, etcetera. Yeah. Was the first question on growth? Was what? Yeah. Just like, when do—when do—it looks like consensus just says no growth. And it is super important to your free cash. And going forward. And so when do we get more details with respect to that? Is that in a year? Is that in two years? Is that when the infrastructure is built out? Yeah. Well, first thing I would say about 2026, I think our track record of beating production estimates, there is risk embedded in that production forecast.

We keep that risk on. And as the year evolves and things play out, we update that accordingly. So I would say that just look at the track record. As far as thinking about sustainable upstream growth in the future, I think that is probably a story that we start talking about, you know, maybe 2027, we start thinking about it, once we get a clearer picture on some of the start times, some of the projects that you mentioned, like Homer City and some of the in-basin data center. You know, we do not see the world any differently than you on what we are seeing for in-basin demand.

You know, on slide 22, we laid out our estimates of 6 to 7 Bcf a day. What has changed a little bit: power demand for data centers has gone up. Coal retirements have been pushed back a little bit, but net-net, it is still a healthy source of in-basin demand.

Lloyd Byrne: Okay. And let me just follow up, Toby, a little bit on giving you resource depth. And your breakevens, just how much production are you comfortable with going forward? Could you add 2 B’s? Could you add 3 B’s and still be comfortable?

Toby Rice: Yeah. I mean, this is a question we have asked here. I mean, realizing the full potential of EQT Corporation, when we came in here, we think about what is the full potential of this, you know, almost 2 million acre resource base we have here. Obviously, we are super disciplined to making sure that we are pairing up with demand, but we believe we have a productive capacity about 12.5 Bcf a day.

Think about that for when we think about the amount of opportunities that we could create on the midstream and infrastructure side of things and still be able to take advantage of the benefit of that integrated platform and capturing the margins on the upstream side, which is where we feel like the largest source of value capture is going to occur. That is sort of how we look at it, but, I mean, that is aspirational for us, and this is one of the reasons why we are pushing so hard with our growth engines, to capture this demand and create these infrastructure opportunities for us.

Jeremy Knop: Lloyd, I would add to that too. You know, I think when you look back at our industry over the last decade or two, so much of growth comes down to companies, you know, really irresponsibly chasing price signals that are fleeting. I think as we think about growth, it comes back to those three prerequisites I mentioned earlier. And as we think about it, it is not something where you will probably ever hear us come out and say, like, hey, we are just going to grow for the next twelve months. Right? Or, hey, we think if prices are higher, we are going to add a little bit of volume. That is not how we think about it.

I do not think any company gets rewarded for that. If anything, you are just introducing uncertainty and sort of gambling on price. The way we think about it is when that demand is structurally showing up, whether it is the MVP projects coming online, like, Clarington, data centers, whatever it might be, that is structural demand of multiple Bcf’s a day that we are really underpinning. And if we grow, it probably looks more so like we grow, you know, 3% for the next five years, you know, on, like, a CAGR basis.

And we have a business, a balance sheet, a cost structure, and an integrated platform that allows us to do that really no matter what gets thrown into the macro mix. So if you are an investor, you can capitalize that and count on it happening, as opposed to having to pull back on capital then reeling back the capital depending on the broader price environment.

I think the way we think about it is at the point in time when we do that, if you do see a down cycle in the middle of that growth, you know, long-term structural growth profile, you will see us buying back stock during the pullback, and curtailing volumes during the weak period, but not having to change our operational cadence. It is a totally different position than I think any other company is really in that has talked about growth to date. But that is because they do not have the attributes that we have built into our business to date. So, again, when we do it, we will do it very intentionally.

We will do it with a lot of discipline, with a long-term focus, but you are not going to see us come out and chase price signals.

Toby Rice: Yeah. It makes sense. Thank you, guys.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Phillip Jungwirth with BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Phillip Jungwirth: It might be early, but can you update us on any discussions or plans this year around placing LNG offtake between Asia and Europe, or securing regas, and just how you think purchasers are looking at Henry Hub versus oil-linked deals beyond 2030. And just because you are having discussions with counterparties, are you surprised at all by international buyer motivation to own physical Henry Hub gas with recent M&A.

Toby Rice: Yeah. Our team has been super active on this front. It has actually been, I mean, really educational at the same time just building out those international relationships. I mean, the demand, I think, is a lot more real than what you read about. I think that market is very opaque. I think what you learn on a firsthand basis interacting with the marketing teams and the executives of some of these international businesses just gives you a different perspective on this. But I would characterize it as I think that demand is a lot more real than people realize. I think there is a lot more demand for volumes, especially when LNG prices are not $20.

They are, you know, call it $8–$12. I think you are going to see a lot of that gas picked up. It goes back a little bit to what we said in our prepared remarks around just where European balances are right now despite all the gas added in the last couple years that you are still looking at really low inventory levels. So I think that is indicative of just how that gas globally is being absorbed. Look, I would say there has been a unique level of interest in our volumes and from a producer.

When you look at the existing LNG players in the U.S., all of them, like liquefaction facilities, are set up to be, like, short Henry Hub. And the offtakers are short Henry Hub. And when you work with EQT Corporation, you actually, I mean, effectively vertically integrate through the chain through that purchasing pipeline. What you are seeing with buyers coming to the U.S., it is not that, for example, Asian buyers are coming in wanting to grow a bunch of Haynesville volumes or East volumes. It is just to own that physical molecule so they are not short anymore. So I would not expect to see them chasing price signals either in the same way.

But it is leading to just so much interest in our resource base. And I think there has been a lot of realization from both European, really, like, supermajors all the way to buyers across Asia that the Gulf Coast, in particular, Haynesville is just super short inventory. And if you are looking at securing physical molecules for 2030 and beyond, you just do not have it. Right? And so it is like a mismatched maturity for the liability you have when you sign up for an offtake. So we are increasingly actually seeing a lot more interest in molecules coming out of Appalachia or the Permian.

I think from our standpoint, that is really where long-term gas supply will come from to feed the LNG demand. It is not the Haynesville. And I think everyone is really, really starting to realize that internationally as well.

Phillip Jungwirth: That is great. And then you guys have over 40 Bcf of gas storage, which came from Equitrans. I mean, it does not get a lot of airtime, and you are effectively managing the reservoir storage at times. But do you see value in adding storage further from the wellhead as part of a broader gas marketing strategy? And, similarly, just a quick one. Now that you own 53% of MVP with the bolt-on, are you planning to consolidate that venture?

Toby Rice: Yeah. Just high level on storage and how it fits into our strategy. I will let Jeremy expand on some of the details here. You know, one of the biggest focuses that we see is going to be on the reliability of energy, and that simply means delivering volumes to the market when the market needs it at the level that the market needs it. So storage is going to be a big part of the focus. We are doing that right now with our strategic curtailment. That is a really big lever that we pull, and we have pulled that pretty consistently over the past couple years. That is a really great tool for us.

And we will look for other tools out there that will enhance the reliability of the energy that we produce at EQT Corporation.

Jeremy Knop: Yeah. I mean, look, it all comes down to returns for us just like these growth projects. You know, we have storage capacity on the Gulf Coast already, in addition to the storage we have in Appalachia. Really, what the market needs is not necessarily storage in Appalachia. It needs salt storage along the Gulf Coast region to really help balance and buffer what I think of as, like, ground-zero volatility over the long term with the seasonal swings and maintenance cycles of those LNG facilities just because it is so concentrated geographically. So it is something we are studying and spending more time thinking about.

I do think you have to, as an operator, like, as much value as I think our team has and could squeeze out of a lot of storage capacity. If I am an investor, that is a hard thing to model and understand. I think that is the type of cash flow that is going to get a pretty low multiple on it.

We are trying to be cognizant of that at the same time and make sure however we go about expressing a view of, like, long volatility through storage, whether it is as an operator like we are today or someone leasing capacity, which we also do, we do it in a way that actually converts the value for shareholders. So it is an area we are spending more time, but probably one of also the greatest opportunities for infrastructure investment in the country right now and really the world overall just to help make sure there is a buffer in the system. Thanks, guys.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Nitin Kumar with Mizuho. Please go ahead.

Nitin Kumar: Great. Thanks for taking my question, guys, and congrats on a great quarter. I want to follow up on Arun’s question around growth capex. I know sometimes in an integrated model, the spending on infrastructure can dilute the ROE, but your investments are very tied to your upstream portfolio. Have you—is there a way for you to quantify what is your ROE on this growth capex or anticipated ROE on this growth capex?

Toby Rice: Yeah. On the infrastructure we have for 2026, we can look at a free cash flow yield, like, holistically, somewhere between 20%–30% across the projects. That is how we think about it. So typically, when you think of infrastructure, you think of returns lower than that. And I think part of why these returns are so good are just investing within our operating footprint. So those are the type of opportunities we are looking for organically on the infrastructure side. You know, that being said, it pales in comparison to developing upstream Marcellus, you know, with a $3.50–$4 gas price.

Jeremy Knop: But

Toby Rice: we have got to be very thoughtful about that and make sure the demand is set up before any upstream volumes are brought in.

Jeremy Knop: And then just remember too, I mean, we are focused on returns on shareholder capital. I think a lot of your just classic upstream companies get so focused on things like single well IRRs, and that is just apples and oranges versus what creates stable annuity-like cash flow streams for investors that drive things like free cash flow and free cash flow yields. So when you think about it, if you are drilling a well that gets you a 100% IRR, you know, to get a return on your enterprise value equal to your WACC—like, that is generally kind of—it is like a 10-to-1 sort of ratio.

If you want a 10% return on enterprise value, you probably need something like a 100% well return. So companies who are out there talking about, like, you know, 15% wellhead return breakeven are probably generating, like, a 1% return for shareholders relative to your WACC. That does not make any sense. I think it is just missed in the equation overall. When we think about it, you have to look at something like infrastructure cash flows, which are annuity-like in nature. All the capital we are putting in here is recurring cash flow that comes out of this over the long term.

And if we are yielding, just call it, 10% on average on enterprise value, but we are investing in other annuity-like cash flow projects at 20%, 30% cash flow yields, then that is driving real sustainable value uplift for shareholders even though that headline IRR is just not the same. Just to give you another example of that, like, to earn the same multiple on your investment drilling a Marcellus well versus a Haynesville well, your Haynesville well needs double the IRR to get the same multiple of invested capital. Right? You are not really creating value, but that hyperbolic decline really skews that calculation. So, again, for us, we do not really focus on the IRR so much.

It is apples and oranges. For us, it is really about what drives cash flow uplift to shareholders and how to do it durably. And that is really what is going to drive value over the long term. And, look. When you step back and think about all the infrastructure investments we have made, even buying Equitrans when we did, it really comes down to that as, like, a foundational sort of insight we had years ago and also what kept us out of going into places like the Haynesville. But, again, like, a lot of people look at our stock and say, well, you trade at a higher multiple than peers.

Nitin Kumar: Well,

Jeremy Knop: we did a couple years ago. We have outperformed virtually every peer since then. And we still trade at a similar level. Right? So I think you have to parse this apart to really understand, like, where is value coming from and why.

Nitin Kumar: Yeah. I think certainly proved the value of what you embarked on two years ago with the Equitrans acquisition. My follow-up, Jeremy, is on the balance sheet. You know, you have some very impressive goals, which do seem achievable for balance sheet reduction. How do you think of the balance sheet beyond 2026? Typically, it is seen as a buffer against volatility, but you have designed the organization to actually ride volatility a little bit better than peers. So how should we think about the balance sheet going forward?

Jeremy Knop: Yeah. I mean, just consistent with what we have said in the past, and $5 billion we see as our long-term max debt level. I would expect our net debt level to fall below that. I do not think you are—again, as we have said for years now, I do not think you will ever see us come out with a programmatic buyback. I think the way we think about it is while in theory in a spreadsheet, your return on cash sitting on the balance sheet is very low, it is hard to overemphasize how valuable that is on just the optionality of that in a very cyclical, volatile industry.

You have seen that if you just look back the last three to four years, just how volatile even our equity has been. I think beyond limiting the volatility in our equity by having low debt, I think being able to step in and be an opportunistic buyer when there are big pullbacks, whether it is related to natural gas or whether it is broader in just the macro environment, that is what we are trying to set up for. So I would expect our net debt to fall. We are not afraid at all to hold several billion dollars of cash on the balance sheet opportunistically.

And we have really been encouraged by our top shareholders to actually do that because they understand that just the nature of the cyclicality, and when those options come, they are tremendous. And it is really one of the best long-term things we can invest in, but you have to be patient.

Nitin Kumar: Thanks for the color, guys.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Neil Dingmann with William Blair. Please go ahead.

Neil Dingmann: Thanks for the time, Toby. Nice to talk to you again. Toby, my first question just on the 2026 guide. It seems looking at that slide six, no question, your operational efficiencies continue to lead to production growth on less capital spend. So I am just wondering, are you seeing anything different for this year when you look at those 2026 expectations? Or is the guide more just kind of being conservative given the bottled gas tape?

Toby Rice: Yeah. We are adding, on a maintenance perspective, get that extra 100 million, and that is largely due to Olympus. So there is some conservatism baked in here. We are taking the momentum that we have established operationally in 2025 and sort of baselining that. Some of the opportunities we are going to be working on to improve that: you know, there are a couple small science tests that are coming out that could tweak some of our well design. I mean, as you know, we do invest in science, so there could be some opportunities on that front.

Jeremy Knop: You know, on the water logistics side of things, we are going to

Toby Rice: continue to build that out. That will continue to bear fruit and give opportunities for us to streamline logistics and operational efficiencies going forward. You know, just for perspective, you know, we pipe about 80% of our water right now, so that is the opportunity for us to continue to increase the logistic support on the completion side. And on the produced water side, you know, we are only piping about 40% of our produced water. So investments in water systems, I think, are going to be value-add for years to come. And then I would say on the service side, we are going to be really aggressive in rebidding a lot of our services.

I think there are some tools that we have from an AI perspective that would allow us to pinpoint some of those efforts. And we think there could be some opportunity for us to grind cost down, probably low single digits on the procurement side, but we are not just focused in the field. We are also focused on the procurement on the backside too.

Jeremy Knop: Neil, one thing I would add to that just on the upstream side of—just on the upstream side of things, I think it is tangible evidence to this. There is some noise in our numbers year over year because we were so transactional in 2024 and then also with the mid-year Olympus close in 2025. If you really step back and think about it and just the level of efficiencies Toby is alluding to, that we also continue to expect going forward. We were producing about 6.3 Bcfe a day in 2024. We sold our non-op interest down to Equinor. That was about 600 a day, so we were at 5.7.

We buy Olympus, you add about half a B back, so you are at 6.2 as a baseline. The production forecast we have given for this year is about 6.4 Bcfe a day, so in effect, while we do not talk about it, we, through our operational improvements and efficiency gain, have actually grown about 200 MMcf a day over the past, call it, two years. I think that is being missed just due to the kind of noise year to year. But I do think that is important tangible evidence to just the volumetric results of what we are doing that are easy to miss. So I would take that into account.

And again, like Toby said, I would expect that to continue.

Neil Dingmann: Great. Great add, Jeremy. And then just very quickly, Toby, on the power projects opportunities going forward, do you anticipate those being structured any differently than, you know, Homer City and any of your previous deals? Seems, you know, you have now a bit of a competitive advantage. I am just wondering, should we think about potentially further power deal structure any differently?

Toby Rice: No. It will just be—it will just depend on what services the specific site requires. I mean, gas supply across the board. And then the opportunity on the midstream side will be a unique factor on a case-by-case basis.

Neil Dingmann: Very good. Thanks, Toby. Alright.

Toby Rice: Neil.

Neil Dingmann: We have time for one more question, and that question comes from the line of

Operator: Kevin McCurdy with Pickering Energy Partners. Please go ahead.

Kevin MacCurdy: Great. Thanks for fitting me in, and I will just keep it to one question. Coming back to the production growth, we noticed that the 2026 turnaround count is higher year over year. And just curious on the cadence of those turnaround lines throughout the year. And does that level give you some flexibility or optionality to grow in 2027?

Jeremy Knop: Yeah. Right now, we have not tried to tee up growth into 2027. I mean, to some degree, I think what you are seeing is lumpiness, as you would expect from a company our size when we are pursuing combo development. But this is not setting up for 2027 growth right now. If we come out and intentionally mean to grow, beyond what I call, like, the accidental growth of just getting so much more efficient of the 200 a day I referenced in the prior response, we will come out and say that, but we are not ready to pursue that. We do not think the market is ready for it yet.

Kevin MacCurdy: Thank you. And you alluded to combo development. Can you kind of expand a little bit on that?

Toby Rice: I mean, combo development has been the core operational pivot that we instituted here when we took over, you know, six years ago. You know, taking full advantage of our large-scale asset base. Moving from drilling, call it, one or two wells off the site, to now drilling six to ten wells off of the site. Doing that across three or four sites sequentially. So we are developing 20 to 30 wells at a time. That has been the step change in operational efficiencies, and logistics that supports that. So that is a core part of our program that we will continue to execute going forward. Appreciate that. Thank you for taking my question.

Neil Dingmann: Yeah.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation and you may now disconnect.

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