Antero Resources Announces First Quarter 2026 Financial and Operating Results

DENVER, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Antero Resources Corporation (NYSE: AR) ("Antero Resources," "Antero," or the "Company") today announced its first 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 March 31, 2026. 

Highlights:

• Net production averaged a company record 3.9 Bcfe/d, an increase of 13% from the year ago period
  • Natural gas production averaged 2.6 Bcf/d, an increase of 21% from the year ago period
  • Liquids production averaged 206 MBbl/d, in line with the year ago period 
• Realized a pre-hedge natural gas price of $5.57 per Mcf, a $0.53 per Mcf premium to NYMEX
• Realized a pre-hedge C3+ NGL price of $37.83 per barrel, a $0.94 per barrel premium to the benchmark
• Net income was $535 million and Adjusted Net Income was $357 million (Non-GAAP)
• Adjusted EBITDAX was $723 million (Non-GAAP) and net cash provided by operating activities was $859 million, increases of 32% and 88% compared to the prior year period, respectively
• Adjusted Free Cash Flow was $657 million (Non-GAAP)
• Closed HG acquisition in early February and completed the Ohio Utica Shale divestiture in late February
• Full HG quarter impact during the second quarter of 2026 is expected to result in 6% production growth and 15% lower cash costs per Mcfe from the first quarter of 2026

Michael Kennedy, CEO and President of Antero Resources commented, "During the first quarter we achieved record production, which was 13% above the year ago period. This production growth drove one of the highest quarterly EBITDAX and Free Cash Flow results in company history. These results reflect a tremendous performance from our operations team which navigated the harsh conditions of Winter Storm Fern without having to shut-in any volumes. This enabled Antero to deliver critical natural gas to the various regions that needed it most, a truly remarkable achievement by our people in the field."

Mr. Kennedy continued, "Looking ahead, the recent geopolitical events have highlighted the advantages of Antero's corporate strategy. We are the largest producer exporter of NGLs in the U.S., selling the majority of our NGL barrels into international markets.  We expect recent global supply outages and disruptions to lead to increasing risk premiums for U.S. NGL barrels both in the near term and in the years ahead. At the same time, we have the highest LNG exposure among Appalachian producers, selling 2.3 Bcf/d of production to sales points along the LNG fairway. We are seeing growing interest from global NGL and LNG buyers that are looking to increase exposure to U.S. supply. This prioritization toward U.S. supply supports higher export utilization and more attractive price premiums at our sales points along the coasts. These attributes uniquely position us to benefit from today's rising global demand for U.S. energy."

Brendan Krueger, CFO of Antero Resources said, "During the first quarter we closed on the HG acquisition and began integration of the new asset. The impressive operational and financial achievements mentioned above led to realizations for natural gas, NGLs and ethane all coming in ahead of expectations during the quarter. This allowed us to reduce debt related to the HG acquisition ahead of our previously communicated targets. Importantly, as a result of the transactions, we expect our net production to increase by approximately 700 MMcfe/d on an annual basis. Additionally, the HG acquisition added 385,000 net acres and 400 drilling locations, while only increasing our Net Debt by $1.5 billion from the year-end 2025 level."

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."

Cash Cost Reduction

Antero expects cash production expense for the remainder of 2026 to be $2.20 to $2.30 per Mcfe. This reduced range reflects a $0.25 per Mcfe, or 10% reduction from the full-year average in 2025 and a $0.39 per Mcfe, or 15% reduction from the first quarter of 2026. Inclusive of G&A and net marketing expense the total cost reduction is expected to be $0.30 per Mcfe. The production and development of the HG assets are expected to result in cash production expenses remaining in that range going forward, assuming current natural gas strip pricing.

Second Quarter and Full-Year 2026 Guidance Update

Antero expects second quarter production to average 4.1 Bcfe/d, a 6% increase from the first quarter of 2026, driven by a full quarter of production from the HG acquisition. The second half of 2026 is expected to average approximately 4.2 Bcfe/d. This results in a full year average of approximately 4.1 Bcfe/d, unchanged from prior guidance. This annual guidance reflects approximately 20% growth year-over-year. The Company is increasing its ethane realized price premium to Mont Belvieu to $2.00 to $3.00 per barrel, reflecting a $1.00 per barrel increase at the midpoint from the prior guidance range. The Company is reducing its cash production expense guidance to a range of $2.25 to $2.35 per Mcfe, a $0.10 per Mcfe reduction at the midpoint. The lower cash production expense is due primarily to the impact of the integration of the lower production costs associated with the HG assets.

Note: Any 2026 guidance items not discussed in this release are unchanged from previously stated guidance.

Natural Gas Hedge Program

The following tables detail Antero's swap and collar hedge position as of the publication of April 24, 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.

Adjusted Free Cash Flow

During the first quarter of 2026, Adjusted Free Cash Flow was $657 million.

First Quarter 2026 Financial Results

Net daily natural gas equivalent production in the first quarter averaged 3.9 Bcfe/d, including 206 MBbl/d of liquids. Antero's average realized natural gas price before hedges was $5.57 per Mcf, a $0.53 per Mcf premium to the benchmark Henry Hub index price. Antero's average realized C3+ NGL price before hedges was $37.83 per barrel, representing a $0.94 per barrel premium to the benchmark index price.

The following table details average net production and average realized prices for the three months ended March 31, 2026:

All-in cash expense, which includes lease operating, gathering, compression, processing and transportation and production and ad valorem taxes was $2.64 per Mcfe in the first quarter, as compared to $2.56 per Mcfe during the first quarter of 2025. The increase compared to the prior year was due to higher fuel costs related to higher natural gas prices during the quarter. Net marketing expense was $0.06 per Mcfe during the first quarter of 2026, unchanged from the first quarter of 2025.

Operating Results

Antero placed 20 Marcellus wells to sales during the first quarter with an average lateral length of 11,652 feet. Thirteen of these wells have been on line for approximately 60 days with an average rate per well of 25 MMcfe/d, including 1,457 Bbl/d of liquids per well assuming 25% ethane recovery. In addition, Antero had a number of notable company operating achievements, including:

• Averaged 13.8 stages per day during the quarter, an increase from 13.4 completion stages per day average in 2025
• Established a company record for drilling days per well of just under 9 days, a 9% improvement from the average in 2025
• Turned-in-line first HG pad in late April, a 6-well pad located in the liquids-rich window with total lateral length drilled of 110,000 feet

First Quarter 2026 Capital Investment

Antero's drilling and completion capital expenditures for the three months ended March 31, 2026 were $222 million. In addition to capital invested in drilling and completion activities, the Company invested $25 million in land during the first quarter. Through this investment, Antero added approximately 5,400 net acres, representing 24 incremental drilling locations at an average cost of approximately $900,000 per location.

Conference Call

A conference call is scheduled on Thursday, April 30, 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 201-493-6746 (International) and reference "Antero Resources." A telephone replay of the call will be available until Thursday, May 7, 2026 at 9:00 am MT at 877-660-6853 (U.S.) or 201-612-7415 (International) using the conference ID: 13758944. 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, May 7, 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 long-term 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 long-term 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 March 31, 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," "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 strategy, future operating 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, future financial position, 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 the Antero Resources' control. These risks include, but are not limited to, risks associated with the successful integration and future performance of acquired assets and operations, 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, changes in emission calculation methods, 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, including the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, and world health events, cybersecurity risks, the state of markets for, and availability of, verified quality carbon offsets and the other risks described 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 March 31, 2026.

The following table sets forth selected financial data for the three months ended March 31, 2025 and 2026 (in thousands):

The following table sets forth selected financial data for the three months ended March 31, 2025 and 2026:

SOURCE Antero Resources Corporation