| | | <EQT’s Marcellus Reserves Ready to Fuel US Energy Future
EQT holds decades of inventory runway primarily from Marcellus Shale. (Aunging/ Adobe Stock)
By Chris Mathews
By Lisa El-Amin
September 30, 2025 02:00 PM
Following an announcement by a handful of energy investors to commit $90 billion in Pennsylvania towards AI data centers and energy infrastructure projects, EQT Corp. is reinforcing its position as a leader in the Appalachian natural gas market.
“I think people are finally waking up to what we’ve always known about natural gas in that it’s the fuel of the future,” said Sarah Fenton, executive vice president of upstream at EQT.
“It’s cheap, reliable, clean, abundant here in Appalachia and essential.”
The company sees applications for natural gas spanning data center power, grid reliability and LNG export demand.
EQT is well-equipped to provide the needed natural gas. The E&P doubled free cash flow per share in the last six years while improving its well performance and capital efficiency, Fenton said.
Operational scale starts with R&D, which EQT allocates approximately 20% of development spending toward. Fenton says the company plans on evaluating how to convert non-core inventory to get ahead on meeting future demand.
With decades, if not a century of inventory runway primarily from Marcellus Shale, Fenton said, EQT’s growth strategy focuses on durable demand rather than expansion alone.
“We don’t just grow to grow. We’ll grow when we have what we call a durable demand signal,” Fenton told Senior Editor Chris Mathews at Hart Energy’s DUG Appalachia Conference & Expo.
Hi, I’m Chris Mathews, senior editor of shale and A&D for Hart Energy, and I’m joined by Sarah Fenton. Sarah is executive vice president of upstream operations for EQT, the largest natural gas producer in Appalachia. Sarah, thank you so much for being here and being at the DUG Appalachia Conference & Expo.
Sarah Fenton, executive vice president of upstream, EQT: You bet, Chris. Thanks for having me.
CM: Of course. Maybe let’s just set the stage. It’s such an exciting time for Appalachia gas right now. A few weeks ago, $90 billion in investments were announced specifically for Pennsylvania to build AI data centers, upstream projects, midstream projects. Why is there so much excitement right now for Appalachia gas?
SF: I think people are finally waking up to what we’ve always known about natural gas in that it’s the fuel of the future. It’s cheap, reliable, clean, abundant here in Appalachia and essential. So whether we’re thinking about funding or feeding the data centers, providing grid reliability or powering the LNG demand, Appalachia can do that and EQT can do that.
One of the things that’s really setting us apart these days is number one, our scale. So our ability to get better as we get bigger and we see that, it’s translating right into free cashflow per share. We’ve doubled it in the last six years. We also see well performance improve, we see capital efficiency approved. We can operate fast, we are digitally enabled and we’ve got that scale.
So for us, we think about it as gravity. So those deals are coming towards us, coming toward EQT for the EQT molecule, the EQT supply on the EQT infrastructure. Now we can provide what these new demand centers are going to need right here in Appalachia, and we’ve got decades, if not a century of inventory runway to help feed this.
CM: Well, I was going to say with decades, maybe a century of inventory out there, it almost seems like a limitless ability to bring on maybe Marcellus gas, but of course other benches in that too. Just talk about what growth looks like maybe for EQT when you start to see some of this demand really materialize, which I think we are starting to right now.
SF: Yeah, we don’t just grow to grow. We’ll grow when we have what we call a durable demand signal. For us, that’s a demand for EQT molecules that we’ll grow into. So a headline this morning around LNG, certainly the other headlines recently around shipping port and Homer City, [Pennsylvania] these are deals we intend to grow into, but it will be EQT molecules on EQT infrastructure feeding those. We plan on assessing not only what it’s going to take to convert our non-core inventory today, so things that might not compete with our wet dry condensate Marcellus today, what’s it going to take to compete in the future for that capital? So making it real accretive, but also understanding the inventory component. So if there is other inventory out there that is considered non-core today, what’s it going to take to unlock it? That’s the R&D that we’re doing today. So EQT does about 20% of their development goes toward science and R&D. This helps us get ahead of some of these future demands that are coming so that we’re prepared to hit when they need.
CM: It sounds like we’re going to need more than just the Marcellus in the future as gas demand in all of the Marcellus, Tier 2 Marcellus, delving deeper into the Utica, maybe even shallower zones. It’s going to be sort of a whole of basin effort, right, to fuel AI and LNG needs and getting it out of the basin too.
SF: Yeah, that you’re 100% correct and that’s why for us today when we think about preparing for the future is we’re not just thinking about and kind of preparing for the future. We’re actually engineering ourselves to lead it through our efforts today.
CM: So you all have done a lot of acquisitions over the past six years, I think five upstream acquisitions. What has it been like to integrate all of those people, all of those assets and really just, I mean, drive what seems like a really fun and good time culture as well at EQT?
SF: Yeah, I mean EQT is different. We think of ourselves as the world’s largest startup. We’re tech driven, we work fast. I kind of made a joke in there about we wear hoodies, but ours are flame retardant. So a little different. But I think the thing that sets us apart is our culture. Culture is our operating model, and what we mean by that is it’s what we do, how we do it and who’s going to do it. It’s all very structured. I was with Rice Energy and Rice Energy outperformed peers by almost 45%. Now, our peers had the same rock- ish, the same equipment-ish, the same skills- ish. So why the 45% outperformance? It was our culture. And so when we came back in 2019 with the takeover of EQT, the first thing we did is turn back on our operating model. So what we’re going to do, we’re a mission aligned group.
So it starts with Toby at the top on what we’re going to start with and what we’re going to accomplish for the year. And we tie that to clear measurable goals. We call them crew metrics, they’re KPIs, but it lets folks know this is what we’re doing and this is what good looks like. It’s really clear from Toby all the way down. We all have a mission alignment and we’re all aligned back up the top. The next thing that we do is how we’re going to do it. So there are processes for the way we drill a well, the way we frac a well, the way we underwrite a deal. So we have been able to break down those things that are big kind of complicated processes into very simple steps. So whether that’s you’re going to use this piece of software and follow this SOP [standard operating procedure], you are going to use this utility to track.
We have digital tools to do that, and then we put it all on a workflow. So now as a worker, as a crew member at EQT, here’s what I’m going to do, my mission alignment, my crew metric, here’s how I’m going to do it, here’s the workflow. And then who’s going to do it? It’s very clear on who owns the process, it’s you. But more importantly, we have feedback loops that allow the people performing the work. Are we meeting expectations? Our crew metrics, we have targets of course, and ranges, and we have winning and not winning yet. So there’s the belief as well. So that’s another cultural component to improving some of our performance on some of these metrics. So just another examples of how the culture works. In 2019 when we came back in, we turned this model on and this approach on, and within six months we saw engagement. Now peer leading. We were a top workplace just six months after taking over. And we’ve continued to stay as a top workplace in Pittsburgh for the last six years. And then I think on Sept. 5th, we’ll see if we’re the reigning champ.
CM: We’ll have to see about that. We’ll check in. But Sarah, thank you so much. We really appreciate your time. It seems like an exciting time for Appalachia for EQT, and we just appreciate you explaining a bit more about it.
SF: And Chris, thanks for having me on. Look, I love talking about EQT and what we do, so this has been fantastic.
CM: Thank you so much. We appreciate it. For more information, please head to hartenergy.com.>
https://www.hartenergy.com/energy-market-transactions/natural-gas/he-sarah-fenton-dugappalachia-eqt-natgas-demand/?utm_source=hart-energy-daily-wrap-up&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20250930
No stock position long or short. Exposure via deep rights to lease from me EQT holds in many of my WV mineral properties with proven reserves in multiple pay zones including the Wet (i.e. Nat Gas Liquids) Marcellus..
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