DENVER, Oct. 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Antero Resources Corporation (NYSE: AR) ("Antero Resources," "Antero," or the "Company") today announced its third quarter 2026 financial and operating results. The relevant consolidated financial statements are included in Antero Resources' Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026. 

Highlights:

• Net production was a company record at over 4.2 Bcfe/d, an increase of 23% from the year ago period
• Net income was $367 million and Adjusted Net Income was $256 million (Non-GAAP)
• Adjusted EBITDAX was $634 million (Non-GAAP), an increase of 99% compared to the prior year period
• Net cash provided by operating activities was $575 million
• Adjusted Free Cash Flow was $215 million (Non-GAAP), an increase of 137% compared to the year ago period
• Total cash operating costs were below the low end of the guidance range at $2.05 per Mcfe, a decrease of $0.39 per Mcfe, or 16%, from the year ago period
• Purchased 1.6 million shares for approximately $56 million
• Completed longest horizontal lateral length in company history at approximately 25,000 feet

Strategic Updates:

• Completed 265 MMcf/d of premium priced supply contracts tied to growing in-basin demand at Clarington, Ohio
• Optimized 400 MMcf/d of firm transportation in the third quarter of 2026; targeting 1 Bcf/d of optimization in 2027

Michael Kennedy, CEO and President of Antero Resources commented, "It has been a remarkable year for Antero. Over the last twelve months we have grown our net production by nearly 1 Bcfe/d though accretive transactions and efficiency gains. We also reduced our cost structure by approximately $0.40 per Mcfe, driving higher margins for our business. We accomplished all of this while also reducing our share count by over 5 million shares and maintaining leverage at approximately 1.0x. We believe our business strategy of product diversity, reduced cost structure and prudent hedging will decrease earnings volatility and drive peer-leading Free Cash Flow per share growth."

Brendan Krueger, CFO of Antero Resources said, "In just the first year of our margin enhancement initiative, we have made substantial progress. For the third quarter of 2026, we reduced our cash cost structure to $2.05 per Mcfe, compared to $2.44 per Mcfe in the third quarter of 2025, a decrease of $0.39 per Mcfe. This drove a 27% improvement in our unhedged EBITDAX margin to $1.28 per Mcfe for the third quarter of 2026 from $1.01 per Mcfe in the third quarter of 2025. This increase in margin was achieved despite NYMEX natural gas prices declining 4%."

For a discussion of the non-GAAP financial measures including Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted EBITDAX, Adjusted Free Cash Flow and Net Debt please see "Non-GAAP Financial Measures."

Margin Enhancement Update

During the third quarter Antero began executing on its margin enhancement initiatives. Antero expects to achieve $140 million of its $300 million target by mid-2027. This includes $50 million through the optimization of its firm transportation portfolio, $60 million from the reversion of the Overriding Royalty Interest and $30 million from the expiration of the Volumetric Production Payment.

Natural Gas Firm Transportation Optimization - During the third quarter, driven by significant end-user demand, Antero entered into firm transportation optimization agreements related to approximately 400 MMcf/d of natural gas. The impact of these agreements is a $20 million annualized increase of Free Cash Flow. Antero is commencing a formal process in the fourth quarter of 2026, targeting the optimization of over 1 Bcf/d of natural gas, which is expected to result in an annualized Free Cash Flow increase of $50 million.

Overriding Royalty Interests Reversion – The Overriding Royalty Interest ("ORRI") sold in 2020 achieved its return hurdles in the second quarter of 2026. As of July 1, 2026, 85% of the ORRI distributions have reverted to Antero. The estimated impact of the reversion on annualized Free Cash Flow is approximately $60 million.

Volumetric Production Payment - The Volumetric Production Payment ("VPP") transaction sold in 2020 expires on August 1, 2027. At expiration, VPP volumes will revert to Antero, resulting in an increase in net production of approximately 35 MMcf/d of natural gas. The estimated impact of the reversion on annualized Free Cash Flow is approximately $30 million.

Regional Natural Gas Sales Agreements

In addition to the progress made on the $300 million margin enhancement initiatives detailed above, Antero entered into 265 MMcf/d of supply contracts that support the growing in-basin demand at the Clarington, Ohio market. These transactions highlight Antero's ability to achieve significant incremental margin improvement driven by demand-pull sales agreements.

Share Repurchase Program

During the quarter, Antero purchased 1.6 million shares for approximately $56 million, for an average weighted price of $34.15 per share. Antero has approximately $821 million of capacity remaining under its share repurchase program. Antero expects to continue opportunistically repurchasing shares.

Fourth Quarter 2026 Guidance Update

Antero expects fourth quarter 2026 production to be approximately 4.3 Bcfe/d, reflecting an estimated 15 to 20 Bcfe of curtailments, driven by low regional pricing.  

Natural gas realized price guidance for the fourth quarter is expected to be a $(0.15) - $(0.25) per Mcf differential to NYMEX, reflecting seasonally lower in-basin pricing. Cash production expense during the fourth quarter is expected to be in the range of $2.10 to $2.20 per Mcfe.

The drilling and completion capital budget is expected to be in the range of $325 to $350 million during the fourth quarter of 2026, as the company is targeting a $1.2 billion drilling and completion capital budget for 2026. This development plan is expected to result in high single digit production growth in 2027. Antero's capital plan reflects the completion of one incremental liquids-rich pad in the 1300 BTU window and one incremental lean pad during the fourth quarter of 2026.

The table below highlights the 2027 and 2028 natural gas hedges that were added during the third quarter, supporting the completion of the lean pad during the fourth quarter of 2026.

 

Natural Gas Hedge Program

The following tables detail Antero's natural gas swap and collar hedge position as of September 30, 2026. For more information on Antero's hedge portfolio, including basis hedges, please see the presentation titled "Hedges and Guidance Presentation" on the Company's website or Antero's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026.

Adjusted Free Cash Flow

During the third quarter of 2026, Adjusted Free Cash Flow was $215 million.

Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results

Net daily natural gas equivalent production in the third quarter averaged 4.2 Bcfe/d, including 222 MBbl/d of liquids. During the third quarter, Antero had curtailments of approximately 10 Bcfe of production. Antero's average realized natural gas price before hedges was $2.63 per Mcf. Antero's average realized C3+ NGL price before hedges was $42.18 per barrel and its C2+ NGL price before hedges was $29.36 per barrel.

The following table details average net production and average realized prices for the three months ended September 30, 2026:

 

 

 

 

Cash production expense, which includes lease operating, gathering, compression, processing and transportation and production and ad valorem taxes was $2.05 per Mcfe in the third quarter, as compared to $2.44 per Mcfe during the third quarter of 2025. The decrease compared to the prior year reflects continued momentum with the integration of HG Energy and the optimization of firm transportation agreements. Net marketing expense was $0.04 per Mcfe during the third quarter of 2026, compared to $0.05 per Mcfe during the third quarter of 2025.

Operating Results

Antero placed 22 Marcellus wells to sales during the third quarter with an average lateral length of 17,600 feet. Five of these wells have been online for approximately 60 days with an average rate per well of 30 MMcfe/d. In addition, Antero had a number of notable company operating achievements, including:

• Completed longest lateral in company history at approximately 25,000 feet
• Achieved company record for daily production on a pad at 273 MMcf/d
• Set drilling speed record averaging under 4 days per 10,000 feet drilled on an entire pad
• Continued drilling and completion improvement on HG asset, accomplishing a 47% decrease on drilling days per well and a 280% increase in completion stages per day compared to the prior operator

Third Quarter 2026 Capital Investment

Antero's drilling and completion capital expenditures for the three months ended September 30, 2026 were $324 million. In addition to capital invested in drilling and completion activities, the Company invested $35 million in land during the third quarter. Through this investment, Antero added approximately 8,000 net acres, representing 35 incremental net drilling locations at an average cost of approximately $750,00 per location.

Acquisitions – In July 2026, as previously disclosed, Antero acquired properties in its West Virginia development footprint for approximately $315 million. These acquired properties include approximately 125 MMcfe/d of net production and 3,500 of net undeveloped acres supporting 15 locations.

Conference Call

A conference call is scheduled on Thursday, October 29, 2026 at 9:00 am MT to discuss the financial and operational results. A brief Q&A session for security analysts will immediately follow the discussion of the results. To participate in the call, dial in at 877-407-9079 (U.S.), or +1 201-493-6746 (International) and reference "Antero Resources." A telephone replay of the call will be available until Thursday, November 5, 2026 at 9:00 am MT at 877-660-6853 (U.S.) or +1 201-612-7415 (International) using the conference ID: 13758946. To access the live webcast and view the related earnings conference call presentation, visit Antero's website at www.anteroresources.com.  The webcast will be archived for replay until Thursday, November 5, 2026 at 9:00 am MT.

Presentation

An updated presentation will be posted to the Company's website before the conference call. The presentation can be found at www.anteroresources.com on the homepage. Information on the Company's website does not constitute a portion of, and is not incorporated by reference into this press release.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Adjusted Net Income

Adjusted Net Income as set forth in this release represents net income, adjusted for certain items. Antero believes that Adjusted Net Income is useful to investors in evaluating operational trends of the Company and its performance relative to other oil and gas producing companies. Adjusted Net Income is not a measure of financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for net income as an indicator of financial performance. The GAAP measure most directly comparable to Adjusted Net Income is net income. The following table reconciles net income to Adjusted Net Income (in thousands):

 

Net Debt

Net Debt is calculated as total debt less cash and cash equivalents. Management uses Net Debt to evaluate the Company's financial position, including its ability to service its debt obligations.

The following table reconciles Consolidated Total Debt to Net Debt as used in this release (in thousands):

Adjusted Free Cash Flow

Adjusted Free Cash Flow is a measure of financial performance not calculated under GAAP and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for cash flow from operating, investing, or financing activities, as an indicator of cash flow or as a measure of liquidity. The Company defines Adjusted Free Cash Flow as net cash provided by operating activities, less capital expenditures, which includes additions to unproved properties, drilling and completion costs and additions to other property and equipment, less distributions to non-controlling interests in Martica, plus transaction expenses.

The Company has not provided projected net cash provided by operating activities or a reconciliation of Adjusted Free Cash Flow to projected net cash provided by operating activities, the most comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP. The Company is unable to project net cash provided by operating activities for any future period because this metric includes the impact of changes in operating assets and liabilities related to the timing of cash receipts and disbursements that may not relate to the period in which the operating activities occurred. The Company is unable to project these timing differences with any reasonable degree of accuracy without unreasonable efforts.

Adjusted Free Cash Flow is a useful indicator of the Company's ability to internally fund its activities, service or incur additional debt and estimate our ability to return capital to shareholders. There are significant limitations to using Adjusted Free Cash Flow as a measure of performance, including the inability to analyze the effect of certain recurring and non-recurring items that materially affect the Company's net income, the lack of comparability of results of operations of different companies and the different methods of calculating Adjusted Free Cash Flow reported by different companies. Adjusted Free Cash Flow does not represent funds available for discretionary use because those funds may be required for debt service, land acquisitions and lease renewals, other capital expenditures, working capital, income taxes, exploration expenses, and other commitments and obligations.

Adjusted EBITDAX

Adjusted EBITDAX is a non-GAAP financial measure that we define as net income, adjusted for certain items detailed below. 

Adjusted EBITDAX as used and defined by us, may not be comparable to similarly titled measures employed by other companies and is not a measure of performance calculated in accordance with GAAP. Adjusted EBITDAX should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for operating income or loss, net income or loss, cash flows provided by operating, investing, and financing activities, or other income or cash flow statement data prepared in accordance with GAAP. Adjusted EBITDAX provides no information regarding our capital structure, borrowings, interest costs, capital expenditures, working capital movement, or tax position. Adjusted EBITDAX does not represent funds available for discretionary use because those funds may be required for debt service, capital expenditures, working capital, income taxes, exploration expenses, and other commitments and obligations. However, our management team believes Adjusted EBITDAX is useful to an investor in evaluating our financial performance because this measure:

• is widely used by investors in the oil and natural gas industry to measure operating performance without regard to items excluded from the calculation of such term, which may vary substantially from company to company depending upon accounting methods and the book value of assets, capital structure and the method by which assets were acquired, among other factors;
• helps investors to more meaningfully evaluate and compare the results of our operations from period to period by removing the effect of our capital and legal structure from our operating structure;
• is used by our management team for various purposes, including as a measure of our operating performance, in presentations to our Board of Directors, and as a basis for strategic planning and forecasting; and
• is used by our Board of Directors as a performance measure in determining executive compensation. 

There are significant limitations to using Adjusted EBITDAX as a measure of performance, including the inability to analyze the effects of certain recurring and non-recurring items that materially affect our net income or loss, the lack of comparability of results of operations of different companies, and the different methods of calculating Adjusted EBITDAX reported by different companies.

The GAAP measures most directly comparable to Adjusted EBITDAX are net income and net cash provided by operating activities. The following table represents a reconciliation of Antero's net income, including noncontrolling interest, to Adjusted EBITDAX and a reconciliation of Antero's Adjusted EBITDAX to net cash provided by operating activities per our condensed consolidated statements of cash flows, in each case, for the three months ended September 30, 2025 and 2026 (in thousands). Adjusted EBITDAX also excludes the noncontrolling interests in Martica, and these adjustments are disclosed in the table below as Martica related adjustments.

 

Drilling and Completion Capital Expenditures

For a reconciliation between cash paid for drilling and completion capital expenditures and drilling and completion accrued capital expenditures during the period, please see the capital expenditures section below (in thousands):

Notwithstanding their use for comparative purposes, the Company's non-GAAP financial measures may not be comparable to similarly titled measures employed by other companies.

This release includes "forward-looking statements." Words such as "may," "assume," "forecast," "position," "predict," "strategy," "expect," "intend," "plan," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe," "project," "budget," "potential," or "continue," "goal," or "target," and similar expressions are used to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words. Such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are not under Antero Resources' control. All statements, except for statements of historical fact, made in this release regarding activities, events or developments Antero Resources expects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future, such as those regarding our financial and hedging strategies, future operating and hedging results, financial position, estimated revenues and losses, our ability to integrate acquired assets and achieve the intended operational, financial and strategic benefits from any such transactions, projected costs, estimated realized natural gas, NGL and oil prices, prospects, plans and objectives of management, return of capital program, expected results, impacts of geopolitical events, including the conflicts in Ukraine, Venezuela and in the Middle East, and world health events, future commodity prices, future production targets, including those related to certain levels of production, future earnings, leverage targets and debt repayment, future capital spending plans, improved and/or increasing capital efficiency, expected drilling and development plans, projected well costs and cost savings initiatives, operations of Antero Midstream, the participation level of our drilling partner and the financial and production results to be achieved as a result of that drilling partnership, the other key assumptions underlying our projections, the impact of recently enacted legislation, and future marketing opportunities, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current beliefs, based on currently available information, as to the outcome and timing of future events. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release. Although Antero Resources believes that the plans, intentions and expectations reflected in or suggested by the forward-looking statements are reasonable, there is no assurance that these plans, intentions or expectations will be achieved. Therefore, actual outcomes and results could materially differ from what is expressed, implied or forecast in such statements. Except as required by law, Antero Resources expressly disclaims any obligation to and does not intend to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.

Antero Resources cautions you that these forward-looking statements are subject to all of the risks and uncertainties, incidental to our business, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond Antero Resources' control. These risks include, but are not limited to, commodity price volatility, inflation, supply chain or other disruption, availability and cost of drilling, completion and production equipment and services, environmental risks, drilling and completion and other operating risks, marketing and transportation risks, regulatory changes or changes in law, the uncertainty inherent in estimating natural gas, NGLs and oil reserves and in projecting future rates of production, cash flows and access to capital, the timing of development expenditures, conflicts of interest among our stockholders, impacts of geopolitical events and world health events, cybersecurity risks, the state of markets for, and availability of, verified quality carbon offsets and the other risks described or referenced under the heading "Risk Factors" in Antero Resources' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025 and the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026.

 

 

The following table sets forth selected financial data for the three months ended September 30, 2025 and 2026 (in thousands):

 

The following table sets forth selected operating data for the three months ended September 30, 2025 and 2026:

 

 

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SOURCE Antero Resources Corporation