Range Resources (NYSE:RRC) outlined steady operational execution, continued free cash flow generation and an active shareholder return program during its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings call. Management also provided a detailed outlook for 2026 activity levels and production cadence, emphasizing infrastructure-driven growth in the second half of the year and flexibility to adjust plans beyond 2027 based on demand and market signals.
Fourth-quarter and full-year operational performance
Chief Executive Officer Dennis Degner said Range “continued its steady progress” in the fourth quarter, citing consistent well results, free cash flow, shareholder returns and stable activity levels aligned with the company’s multi-year development plan.
Operationally, Range ran two horizontal rigs in the quarter, drilling roughly 225,000 horizontal feet across 15 laterals, averaging 15,000 feet per well. For the year, Range drilled 69 laterals averaging 14,800 feet, exceeding 1 million total lateral feet drilled. Degner emphasized that the company’s “large, contiguous acreage position” supports longer laterals that improve efficiency, access more reserves from a single location and reduce surface footprint and infrastructure needs.
On completions, Range completed about 1,200 frac stages in the fourth quarter. Degner said efficiencies approached 10 stages per day per crew, contributing to nearly 3,800 stages for 2025 and a company benchmark of 9.7 stages per day. He also highlighted that the company achieved these results while delivering one of its best safety performance levels.
Range’s annual services RFP resulted in 2026 drilling and completions pricing, materials and services that are “flat to slightly lower” than 2025 levels, according to Degner. He added that the company has multiple long-term agreements in place for pricing stability, including a base electric hydraulic fracturing fleet under a new two-year term starting Jan. 1, 2026.
Marketing, exports and winter pricing opportunities
Degner pointed to record U.S. energy exports in the fourth quarter, noting strength across natural gas and NGLs. He cited LNG exports averaging more than 17 Bcf/d in the quarter, up 10% sequentially. He also cited estimated waterborne ethane exports of 622,000 barrels per day, up more than 40% year-over-year and 24% sequentially, and said LPG exports were up modestly year-over-year with expectations for a larger benefit in 2026 from new U.S. export terminal capacity.
Management discussed Winter Storm Fern and the market response. Degner said that during the storm, about 5 Bcf/d of LNG feed gas was redirected to serve U.S. demand for several days and then returned to pre-storm levels as temperatures normalized. He said the weather contributed to strong February bid-week pricing that settled above $7 per MMBtu, and that Range sold nearly all of its natural gas during bid week to “lock in strong free cash flow.” Degner added that the liquids marketing team also generated incremental revenue by optimizing ethane extraction and selling more BTUs locally as natural gas.
In response to a question late in the call, Degner said the company would not quantify the cash flow uplift from the storm, but described February as shaping up to be “one, if not perhaps the best free cash flow and realizations month in perhaps company history.”
Long-term sales agreement tied to future processing expansion
Range also announced a long-term sales agreement linking gas from its planned processing expansion to a new power plant in the Midwest. Degner said the project is expected to start up in late 2027 and that the transaction is set at an “attractive premium” relative to a Midwest index, though management said it could not disclose confidential terms.
During Q&A, Degner described the agreement as potentially scalable and said Range is seeing additional interest in power generation and data center projects both in its operating area and in other regions where the company has transportation capacity. He also referenced the “Fort Cherry project” as an in-basin opportunity the company is monitoring, describing progress toward identifying an end user.
2026 outlook: capital, activity and production cadence
Looking ahead, Range expects to run a single full-time “super spec” drilling rig and a second rig in the second half of 2026. On completions, the company expects to run one full-time electric frac crew and add a spot crew in the second and third quarters to draw down DUC inventory.
Management guided to a 2026 all-in capital budget of $650 million to $700 million, including:
- $500 million of maintenance drilling and completion capital
- $120 million to $140 million of incremental D&C growth capital, primarily for a second completions crew
- $15 million to $35 million in land spending for targeted acreage, including efforts to increase lateral lengths
- $15 million to $25 million for software and production facility upgrades to reduce emissions, including completion of a pneumatic retrofit project started in 2024
The company expects 2026 production of 2.35 to 2.4 Bcfe/d, with production down in the first quarter versus the fourth quarter before stepping up meaningfully in the second half as gathering and processing expansions are commissioned mid-year.
In response to a question on 2026 cadence, Degner said first-quarter production should be about 2.2 Bcfe/d versus roughly 2.3 Bcfe/d in the fourth quarter, with some variability tied to ethane extraction versus rejection decisions. He said a processing expansion of roughly 300 MMcf/d of capacity is expected to come online around mid-year, with the company forecasting year-end 2026 production around 2.5 Bcfe/d “plus or minus” as additional wells are turned to sales and completion activity increases.
Financial results and shareholder returns
Chief Financial Officer Mark Scucchi said Range generated $1.3 billion in cash flow from operations before working capital and “over $650 million” in free cash flow in 2025. He said the company’s free cash flow benefited from realizing a price greater than NYMEX Henry Hub, noting NYMEX natural gas averaged $3.43 for the year while Range achieved an average hedged realized price of $3.60 per unit of production, a $0.17 premium driven by commodity mix, hedging and transportation and sales contracts. Scucchi said roughly 90% of revenue was delivered from outside Appalachia.
Scucchi said per-unit cash margin increased roughly 20% to $1.64 per Mcfe, which he characterized as about three times the company’s maintenance drilling and completion capital per Mcfe.
Range returned capital to shareholders through $86 million in dividends and $231 million in share repurchases, while also reducing net debt by $186 million in 2025. Scucchi said Range has reduced debt by about $3 billion over the last several years.
The company’s board increased the available capacity under its share repurchase program to $1.5 billion. Scucchi also said the company expects to increase its quarterly dividend by $0.01 per share, or 11%, at the next announcement, and reiterated that management expects the fixed per-share dividend to “grow slowly and reliably” over time.
In Q&A, Scucchi said Range continues to favor buybacks given management’s view of the stock’s value versus the company’s long-duration inventory, while also expecting steady dividend growth. He added that Range does not use a formulaic buyback approach, preferring flexibility to be opportunistic.
On costs, Scucchi said the company’s free cash flow outlook assumptions keep operating costs essentially flat and described the company as being closer to “lower limits” on further cost reductions, while still seeking incremental operational efficiencies.
About Range Resources (NYSE:RRC)
Range Resources Corporation, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, is an independent energy company engaged in the exploration, development and production of natural gas, oil and natural gas liquids. The company focuses its core operations on the Appalachian Basin, with a significant presence in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale. Through its drilling and completion activities, Range Resources seeks to optimize production efficiency while maintaining a disciplined approach to capital allocation and cost management.
The company’s technical expertise centers on advanced horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques, which it applies to unlock unconventional resources.
