Range Resources sticking to measured 2026 growth plan
Be prepared to regularly hear this phrase or variants of it in the coming weeks: “Disciplined growth.”
The leaders of Range Resources Corp., Fort Worth, are maintaining plans to steadily increase production this year as new infrastructure comes online and won’t commit to another round of growth investments until additional demand becomes very apparent and durable.
Range’s assets in the Marcellus produced a little more than 2.2 bcfed in the first quarter, with natural gas output coming in at just below 1.51 bcfd. Both of those figures were essentially flat from the first 3 months of 2025 and were helped by the operator turning in line (TIL) 17 liquids-rich wells.
The 2026 plans by chief executive officer Dennis Degner and his team call for TILs to total 68 (50 of them liquids-rich) and for production to gradually grow and start to use gathering and compression infrastructure scheduled to start operations around mid-year.
By year’s end, Degner told analysts on an Apr. 22 conference call, production from Range’s roughly 52,000 net acres in Pennsylvania should grow to 2.5 bcfed as unfinished wells start to be turned in line. Those additions, outlined by executives 2 months ago, will help Range’s output get to 2.6 bcfed in 2027 but near-term growth beyond that will need a strong market signal.
“When we think about what’s beyond 2027, […] it’s going to start with a conversation around what kind of demand and opportunity further materializes,” Degner said. “We think there’s a really strong opportunity for that to take shape. But it’s got to take shape.”
Degner and his team are sticking to their full-year production guidance of 2.35-2.40 bcfed and their capital spending forecast of $650-700 million. Should the Range team decide not to invest in more growth over the near term, Degner said the company’s capex budget could shrink to $570-600 million while maintaining production around 2.6 bcfed.
Degner said Range executives expect to be able to invest in “another thoughtful wedge of growth” late this decade, when commodity prices are expected to be consistently higher. The first quarter’s rise in prices, first from harsh winter weather and then from the Iran war, boosted Range’s average price per mcfe to $4.84 from $4.02 early last year.
Degner said the operator's natural gas liquids premium over the benchmark Mont Belvieu Index was $4.41, the highest in Range’s history. That helped net income in the first 3 months of the year pop to $342 million from $97 million in first-quarter 2025 as revenues rose to $1.03 billion from $691 million.
Shares of Range (Ticker: RRC) were up more than 4% to $43.55 in afternoon trading on Apr. 22. They have now climbed more than 20% over the past 6 months, an increase that has grown Range’s market capitalization to about $10.2 billion.
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.