Infinity more likely to add frac crews than third rig in 2026
Infinity Natural Resources Inc., Morgantown, plans to add a second rig to its operations this spring as it builds on the December acquisition of some Ohio Utica assets from Antero Resources. But executives said Mar. 11 they’re more likely to add fracturing crews than a third rig this year should oil prices stay at higher levels.
Infinity, led by president and chief executive officer Zack Arnold, 3 months ago paid roughly $1.2 billion for upstream and midstream assets in Ohio that peers at Antero were divesting as part of their purchase of HG Energy II assets in the Marcellus basin. In the second quarter, Infinity will begin operating a rig in the former Antero footprint and Arnold said he expects the company will maintain that count for the rest of the year.
“We are cognizant of our portfolio and the returns that we have,” Arnold said on a conference call discussing Infinity’s fourth-quarter results and 2026 outlook. “We’re probably more likely to maybe consider additional frac crews […] than drilling rigs at this stage. But it’s difficult to say […] Three weeks ago, oil prices were a little bit different.”
Arnold said the team has flexibility “to do the right things” should commodity prices support further investment and could tweak the oil-natural gas priorities in a 2026 plan that today calls for 72% of drilling activity to be in Ohio with the remainder in Pennsylvania. The goal is to turn in line about 30 wells (gross) this year—10 of which will be at the recently acquired assets—and have 2026 total net production grow to 345-375 MMcfed, of which liquids and oil will be 18,000-20,000 b/d. In the fourth quarter, that figure was 272 MMcfed.
Those plans translate into expected development capital spending (which includes midstream work) for the year of $450-500 million, up from $291 million in 2025. On the conference call, Arnold detailed that the increase includes an Antero working interest that Infinity assumed and which adds about 9% to 2025’s total. He also said there’s some flexibility built into the 2026 projections.
“We don’t want to surprise somebody if we end up with more working interest or longer laterals than we talked about,” Arnold said. “There are certainly capital projects we haven’t budgeted before that I think could be interesting, including for the dry gas Utica.”
In the last 3 months of 2025, Infinity produced a net profit of $80.4 million on revenues of $117 million. The big bottom-line number, which reversed a year-earlier loss of $5.5 million, included more than $28 million in gains on derivatives, a swing of more than $56 million from late 2024.
Shares of Infinity (Ticker: INR) were up more than 3% to roughly $18.20 in midday trading Mar. 11. Over the past 6 months, shares have climbed more than 30%, a move that has pushed Infinity’s market capitalization to $330 million.
About the Author
Geert De Lombaerde
Senior Editor
A native of Belgium, Geert De Lombaerde has more than two decades of business journalism experience and writes about markets and economic trends for Endeavor Business Media publications Healthcare Innovation, IndustryWeek, FleetOwner, Oil & Gas Journal and T&D World. With a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, he began his reporting career at the Business Courier in Cincinnati and later was managing editor and editor of the Nashville Business Journal. Most recently, he oversaw the online and print products of the Nashville Post and reported primarily on Middle Tennessee’s finance sector as well as many of its publicly traded companies.