Infinity executives seek to maintain growth pace in 2026

The leaders of Infinity Natural Resources Inc., Morgantown, plan to sustain the 2025 development pace of their Appalachian assets through next year.

Infinity turned to sales 10 wells during the third quarter, growing its total location count in the oil-weighted Ohio Utica and Pennsylvania Dry Gas Marcellus and Deep Dry Gas Utica basins to about 315. The company’s also drilled three wells in each of those two states. That work helped production grow to 36,000 boe/d from 26,000 boe/d in the same period of last year.

Also pitching in was the ground game: In the 3 months that ended Sept. 30, Infinity teams completed 350 land transactions worth nearly $12 million. Those added 3,000 acres to the company’s portfolio. Zack Arnold, president and chief executive officer, told analysts on a Nov. 11 conference call, many acquisitions added working interests to existing projects “that are incredibly meaningful” and that the plan is to begin developing many sites by the end of this year.

“That is an incredible testament to our team’s ability to stay focused in areas where we see value. I think we have a strategic advantage by being located in the basin that gives us a unique opportunity,” Arnold said. “Really excited about that work and we’ll keep doing those ground-game attacks in both areas.”

The faster pace of land acquisition—Infinity has now bought roughly 4,300 net acres in 2025—helped lift capital spending during the third quarter to $95 million. That prompted Arnold and his team to tell investors that full-year capex will be $270-292 million, near the high end of previous forecasts.

While a detailed 2026 guidance wasn't revealed, Arnold said Infinity will continue to grow its operations in both Ohio and Pennsylvania at roughly the same pace as this year.

“If we ran 1.2 rigs in 2025, I think you should expect that we remain at least that active in 2026,” he said. “We aren’t providing splits to our capital allocation right now between gas or oil but we have very attractive returns in both commodities.”

Infinity, which went public 10 months ago, produced a net profit of $40.0 million on total revenues of $79.7 million in the third quarter. More than $15 million of those profits were from gains on derivatives; operating income rose about 4% year over year to $23.9 million.

Shares of Infinity (Ticker: INR) jumped 15% to $13.45 after executives’ earnings report—which included word of a share buyback plan—and conference call. On the afternoon of Nov. 14, they were changing hands at $13.34—well below their initial public offering price of $20. The company’s market capitalization is now about $210 million.