Antero to buy HG Energy gas production, pipelines

Market: Electricity, Natural gas
08/12/25

US natural gas producer Antero Resources and its midstream arm Antero Midstream have agreed to acquire the upstream and pipeline assets of privately held northeast rival HG Energy for a combined $3.9bn in cash, while divesting some non-core assets.

Antero Resources, one of the largest US gas producers, will increase its production by 850mn cf/d (24mn m³/d) of gas equivalent (cfe) in West Virginia through the acquisition for $2.8bn. But Antero also said Monday that it agreed to sell its upstream assets totaling 150mn cfe/d of expected production in the Utica shale in Ohio for $800mn in cash.

Antero Midstream will also buy HG Energy's midstream assets for $1.1bn and sell its Utica midstream assets for $400mn.

Antero, which in the third quarter produced 3.4 Bcfe/d — including 2.2 Bcf/d of gas — would increase its production through the combined purchase and divestiture to 4.1 Bcfe/d. This is still less than the gas production of US producers Expand Energy (6.7 Bcf/d), EQT (6.5 Bcf/d) and Coterra (2.9 Bcf/d).

Antero expects its purchase of HG's upstream assets to close in the second quarter of 2026, and its Utica upstream divestiture to close in the first quarter of 2026.

The transactions come as US gas prices surge to the highest in three years on weather forecasts showing very cold weather this winter, which is expected to drain inventories while US LNG exports break new records and artificial intelligence data centers scramble to secure gas-fired electricity. Some data center developers plan to site the electricity-intensive facilities in the northeastern US, where Antero operates, because of the region's cheap and abundant gas supplies and the relative ease of building intrastate pipelines there. The prompt-month Nymex gas price at the US benchmark Henry Hub in Erath, Louisiana, settled at the end of last week at $5.289/mmBtu, up from $3.079/mmBtu a year earlier and $2.71/mmBtu two years earlier.

By Julian Hast

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