Expand Energy prepared to slow completion work if prices weaken further
Expand Energy Corp., Spring, Tex., would cut back on production if natural gas futures prices slip from their current levels, executives told analysts after reporting first-quarter results.
Henry Hub natural gas June 2026 futures were down about 2% to about $2.63/MMbtu on Apr. 29 as traders continue to react to mild spring weather and higher storage levels. They’re now down roughly 20% from year-ago levels. Meanwhile, prices for several 2027-dated contracts have fallen below $3.60/MMbtu, a move that prompted JPMorgan analyst Zach Parham to ask on Expand’s first-quarter conference call if interim chief executive officer Mike Wichterich and his team are considering pulling back on output or building deferred capacity as Expand as has done in recent years.
“The plan that we laid out […] is predicated on that $3.50 to $4 price range […] We’re still in that today but we’re not stuck to it,” chief operating officer Josh Viets responded. “Our toolkit is there and we know how to leverage flexible operations. If we see markets soften further, we’ll absolutely be in a position to defer turn-in-lines [and] slow down our completion activities.”
Expand produced nearly 7.44 bcfed during the first quarter (93% natural gas), which was up nearly 10% from the first three months of 2025. Of that production, 46% came from assets in the Haynesville basin (up from about 39% a year earlier), 37% from Northeast Appalachia and the remainder from Southwest Appalachia.
Wichterich, who in February replaced Nick Dell’Osso while Expand’s directors search for a new permanent leader, is looking to have full-year 2026 production average about 7.5 bcfed while deploying between 11 and 12 rigs and six to seven completion crews. The current quarter will feature some seasonal curtailments, executives said, and production is expected to remain flat from early this year.
“We are in the right place at the right time,” Wichterich said on the conference call. “Our assets are reaching 90% of the expected demand growth in this country and our Haynesville [operation] is sitting at the epicenter of growth because of the LNG market. We think we are in the best position to take advantage of that.”
On the LNG front, Expand executives this week signed a 20-year sales and purchase agreement with Delfin FLNG Vessel 1 that calls for Expand to supply about 1.15 million tpa. That contract replaces previous deals with Delfin and Gunvor Group and calls for the gas to be sold at a Henry Hub price and to start flowing in 2031.
Expand produced a first-quarter net profit of $1.16 billion on total revenues of $4.4 billion. Those numbers were an improvement from early 2025, when the company lost $249 million on $2.2 billion in sales, the latter figure hampered by $1 billion loss on derivatives.
Shares of Expand (Ticker: EXE) were up nearly 3% to about $99.50 in afternoon trading on April 29. Over the last six months, they’re essentially flat and the company’s market capitalization is now nearly $24 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.