The consolidation of upstream and midstream assets in the Marcellus/Utica continued this week with announcements by Antero Resources and Antero Midstream that they had reached agreements to acquire privately held HG Energy II’s extensive holdings in “almost heavenly” West Virginia and to divest non-core assets in Ohio to Infinity Natural Resources and Northern Oil & Gas. In today’s RBN blog, we detail the deals, which will make “the two Anteros” West Virginia-only companies, and discuss how the transactions affirm recent trends in Appalachia.
It was just a few months ago that we blogged about two big M&A deals in the Northeast. First, in Might as Well Jump!, we looked at EOG Resources’ $5.6 billion purchase of Encino Acquisition Partners (EAP), the Utica’s #1 producer of condensate. That deal, which closed on August 1, gave EOG its third “foundational” focus area (the others are the Eagle Ford and the Permian's Delaware Basin) and supported the view that the Utica really is an up-and-comer. Soon thereafter, in Fun, Fun, Fun, we discussed the plan by EQT Corp., the Marcellus/Utica’s largest gas producer, to buy Olympus Energy’s upstream and midstream assets in southwestern Pennsylvania for $1.8 billion in cash and stock. We pointed out that the Olympus deal, which closed on July 1, came on the heels of EQT’s August 2023 acquisition of Tug Hill’s gas production assets and XcL Midstream’s pipeline and processing assets in northern West Virginia for $5.2 billion.
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The four deals that Antero Resources and Antero Midstream — two separate but closely aligned, publicly owned companies — announced on December 8 hit a lot of the same notes as the EOG and EQT transactions. Let’s start with the agreements with HG Energy II, which is backed primarily by Quantum Energy Partners. Antero Resources said it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire HG Energy’s upstream assets for $2.8 billion in cash plus the assumption of HG Energy’s commodity hedge book. At the same time, Antero Midstream said it has agreed to buy HG Energy’s midstream assets for $1.1 billion in cash. Both deals are expected to close in Q2 2026.
Antero Resources currently holds about 475,000 acres in northern West Virginia — yellow-shaded areas in Figure 1 below show their general location — and produced about 3.4 Bcfe/d in Q3 2025 or, more precisely, 2.2 Bcf/d of natural gas and 206 Mb/d of NGLs. HG Energy, in turn, holds about 385,000 net acres (green-shaded areas) and produces about 850 MMcfe/d. (No gas/NGLs breakdown of HG Energy’s production was provided.) HG Energy also comes to Antero with more than 400 remaining drilling locations with average lateral lengths of about 20,300 feet. (More on that in a moment.)
Antero Resources’ and HG Energy’s Acreage and Other Assets
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About the song
“Take Me Home, Country Roads” was written by Bill Danoff, Taffy Nivert and John Denver. It appears as the first song on side two of John Denver’s fourth studio album, Poems, Prayers & Promises. With its reference to West Virginia in the opening verse lines — “Almost heaven, West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River” — the tune became one of the four official state songs for West Virginia in March 2014. Released as a single in April 1971, the song went to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart and has been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). A number of different artists have covered the song over the years, including Hermes House Band, Olivia Newton-John, and Jason & The Scorchers. Personnel on the record were: John Denver (lead vocals, 6- and 12-string acoustic guitars), Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert (backing vocals), Eric Weissberg (banjo, steel guitar), Richard Kniss (bass), and Gary Chester (drums, percussion).
Poems, Prayers & Promises was recorded in 1970-71 at RCA Studios in New York City. Produced by Milton Okun and Susan Ruskin, the album was released in April 1971. It went to #15 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart and has been certified Platinum by the RIAA. Two Top 10 singles were released from the LP.
John Denver (John Deutschendorf Jr.) was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and actor. He began his professional career in the 1960s as a member of a folk group, The Chad Mitchell Trio. He started his solo career with the release of his first album on RCA Records in 1969. Denver released 30 studio albums, eight live albums, 17 compilation albums, and 44 singles and has sold more than 33 million records worldwide. He appeared in several television shows and in eight motion pictures. He has won one ACM Award, three American Music Awards, two CMA Awards, one Emmy Award, and two Grammy Awards. Denver is a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He died in October 1997 at the age of 53.
"About the Song" -- written by Mickey McMahan , RBN Director of Musicology
