AR Antero Resources Corporation

DENVER, Feb. 12, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Antero Resources Corporation (NYSE: AR) ("Antero Resources," "Antero," or the "Company") today announced its fourth quarter 2024 financial and operating results, year end 2024 estimated proved reserves and 2025 guidance. The relevant consolidated financial statements are included in Antero Resources' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024. 

Fourth Quarter 2024 Highlights:

• Net production averaged 3.4 Bcfe/d
  • Natural gas production averaged 2.1 Bcf/d, a 7% decrease from the year ago period
  • Liquids production averaged 217 MBbl/d, a 14% increase from the year ago period
• Realized a pre-hedge natural gas equivalent price of $3.64 per Mcfe, an $0.85 per Mcfe premium to NYMEX
• Realized a pre-hedge C3+ NGL price of $44.29 per barrel, a $3.09 per barrel premium to Mont Belvieu
• Net income was $150 million and Adjusted Net Income was $181 million (Non-GAAP)
• Adjusted EBITDAX was $332 million (Non-GAAP); net cash provided by operating activities was $278 million
• Drilling and completion capital was $120 million, 27% below the prior year period
• Free Cash Flow was $159 million (Non-GAAP)
• Averaged a quarterly company record of 13.2 completion stages per day

Full Year 2024 Highlights:

• Net Production averaged 3.4 Bcfe/d, an increase of 1% from the prior year
  • Natural gas production averaged 2.2 Bcf/d, a decrease of 3% from the prior year
  • Liquids production averaged 209 MBbl/d, an increase of 8% from the prior year
• Drilling and completion capital was $620 million, a 32% decline from the prior year
• Completion stages per day averaged 12.2 stages per day, a 14% increase compared to 2023
• Estimated proved reserves were 17.9 Tcfe at year end 2024 and proved developed reserves were 13.7 Tcfe (77% proved developed)
• Estimated future development cost for 4.2 Tcfe of proved undeveloped reserves is $0.44 per Mcfe

2025 Guidance Highlights:

• Raised previously communicated maintenance production targets by 50 MMcfe/d to 3.35 to 3.45 Bcfe/d, driven by growth in liquids production
• Realized natural gas price is expected to average a premium of $0.10 to $0.20 per Mcf to NYMEX
• Realized C3+ NGL price is expected to average a premium of $1.50 to $2.50 per barrel to Mont Belvieu
• Reduced previously communicated drilling and completion capital budget, by $25 million at the midpoint to $650 million to $700 million

Paul Rady, Chairman, CEO and President of Antero Resources commented, "Our 2024 development program delivered production that was 2% above the midpoint of the initial guidance range and capital that was 8% below the midpoint of the initial guidance range. This exceptional performance highlights the strength of our asset base and the significant capital efficiency gains we made throughout the year. Our 2025 budget reflects an increase to our maintenance production targets driven by our liquids. This development program positions us to capture a significant increase in Free Cash Flow year-over-year with the greatest exposure to higher natural gas prices."

Michael Kennedy, CFO of Antero Resources said, "Antero's 2024 financial results reflect the company's peer-leading Free Cash Flow breakeven level driven by our significant liquids production and firm transportation portfolio. These attributes enabled us to generate Free Cash Flow of $73 million in 2024 despite being unhedged with Henry Hub averaging $2.27 per Mcf. Looking ahead to 2025, our firm transportation portfolio delivers 75% of our natural gas to the LNG corridor along the Gulf Coast, and is expected to result in higher premium price realizations to NYMEX following the recent start-up of two large LNG export terminals in the Gulf."

For a discussion of the non-GAAP financial measures including Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted EBITDAX, Free Cash Flow and Net Debt please see "Non-GAAP Financial Measures."

2025 Guidance

Antero's 2025 drilling and completion capital budget is $650 to $700 million. Net production is expected to average between 3.35 and 3.45 Bcfe/d during 2025. The Company's land capital guidance is $75 million to $100 million.

The following is a summary of Antero Resources' 2025 capital budget. 

The following is a summary of Antero Resources' 2025 production, pricing and cash expense guidance:

Commodity Derivative Positions

Antero added new natural gas hedges for 2025 and 2026 with amounts tied to the completion of two lean (approximately 1200 BTU gas) drilled but uncompleted ("DUC") pads that were deferred in 2024. Antero's portfolio includes lean gas development in its capital budget for high gas productivity and midstream infrastructure availability. The hedges were added to lock in attractive rates of returns on the two deferred pads. Antero expects to turn-to-sales the first DUC pad during the first quarter of 2025 and the second DUC pad in the third quarter of 2025. Antero did not enter into any new liquids hedges during the fourth quarter of 2024. For more detail please see the presentation titled "Hedge and Guidance Presentation" on Antero's website. 

Fourth Quarter 2024 Financial Results

Net daily natural gas equivalent production in the fourth quarter averaged 3.4 Bcfe/d, including 217 MBbl/d of liquids. Antero's average realized natural gas price before hedges was $2.77 per Mcf, a $0.02 per Mcf discount to the benchmark index price. Antero's average realized C3+ NGL price before hedges was $44.29 per barrel, a $3.09 per barrel premium to the benchmark index price. 

The following table details average net production and average realized prices for the three months ended December 31, 2024:

All-in cash expense, which includes lease operating, gathering, compression, processing and transportation and production and ad valorem taxes was $2.45 per Mcfe in the fourth quarter, as compared to $2.32 per Mcfe during the fourth quarter of 2023. The increase was due primarily to higher gathering, compression and processing costs related to CPI-based adjustments in 2024 and an increase in ad valorem taxes that is based on higher commodity prices in 2022. Net marketing expense was $0.06 per Mcfe in the fourth quarter, compared to $0.05 per Mcfe during the fourth quarter of 2023.

Free Cash Flow

During the fourth quarter of 2024, Free Cash Flow was $159 million.

Fourth Quarter 2024 Operating Results

• Antero placed 5 horizontal Marcellus wells to sales during the fourth quarter with an average lateral length of 17,950 feet
• These wells have been on line for approximately 60 days with an average rate per well of 34 MMcfe/d, including 1,650 Bbl/d of liquids per well assuming 25% ethane recovery

Fourth Quarter 2024 Capital Investment

Antero's drilling and completion capital expenditures for the three months ended December 31, 2024, were $120 million. In addition to capital invested in drilling and completion activities, the Company invested $22 million in land during the fourth quarter. During the quarter, Antero added approximately 4,200 net acres, representing 15 incremental drilling locations at an average cost of approximately $950,000 per location. During 2024, Antero added 59 locations at an average cost of approximately $900,000 per location. These additions more than offset the wells Antero turned-to-sales during the year.

Year End Proved Reserves

At December 31, 2024, Antero's estimated proved reserves were 17.9 Tcfe, flat from the prior year before sales of reserves in place. Estimated proved reserves were comprised of 59% natural gas, 40% NGLs and 1% oil. 

Estimated proved developed reserves were 13.7 Tcfe, flat from the prior year. The percentage of estimated proved reserves classified as proved developed increased to 77% at year end 2024. At year end 2024, Antero's five year development plan included 289 gross PUD locations.  Antero's proved undeveloped locations have an average estimated BTU of 1259, with an average lateral length of 13,800 feet.

Antero's 4.2 Tcfe of estimated proved undeveloped reserves will require an estimated $1.8 billion of future development capital over the next five years, resulting in an estimated average future development cost for proved undeveloped reserves of $0.44 per Mcfe.

The following table presents a summary of changes in estimated proved reserves (in Tcfe).

Conference Call

A conference call is scheduled on Thursday, February 13, 2025 at 9:00 am MT to discuss the financial and operational results. A brief Q&A session for security analysts will immediately follow the discussion of the results. To participate in the call, dial in at 877-407-9079 (U.S.), or 201-493-6746 (International) and reference "Antero Resources." A telephone replay of the call will be available until Thursday, February 20, 2025 at 9:00 am MT at 877-660-6853 (U.S.) or 201-612-7415 (International) using the conference ID: 13750392. To access the live webcast and view the related earnings conference call presentation, visit Antero's website at www.anteroresources.com.  The webcast will be archived for replay until Thursday, February 20, 2025 at 9:00 am MT.

Presentation

An updated presentation will be posted to the Company's website before the conference call. The presentation can be found at www.anteroresources.com on the homepage. Information on the Company's website does not constitute a portion of, and is not incorporated by reference into this press release.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Adjusted Net Income (Loss)  

Adjusted Net Income as set forth in this release represents net income, adjusted for certain items. Antero believes that Adjusted Net Income is useful to investors in evaluating operational trends of the Company and its performance relative to other oil and gas producing companies. Adjusted Net Income is not a measure of financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for net income (loss) as an indicator of financial performance. The GAAP measure most directly comparable to Adjusted Net Income is net income. The following table reconciles net income to Adjusted Net Income (in thousands):

Net Debt

Net Debt is calculated as total long-term debt less cash and cash equivalents. Management uses Net Debt to evaluate the Company's financial position, including its ability to service its debt obligations.

The following table reconciles consolidated total long-term debt to Net Debt as used in this release (in thousands):

Free Cash Flow

Free Cash Flow is a measure of financial performance not calculated under GAAP and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for cash flow from operating, investing, or financing activities, as an indicator of cash flow or as a measure of liquidity. The Company defines Free Cash Flow as net cash provided by operating activities, less capital expenditures, which includes additions to unproved properties, drilling and completion costs and additions to other property and equipment, less net derivative monetizations and distributions to non-controlling interests in Martica.

The Company has not provided projected net cash provided by operating activities or a reconciliation of Free Cash Flow to projected net cash provided by operating activities, the most comparable financial measure calculated in accordance with GAAP. The Company is unable to project net cash provided by operating activities for any future period because this metric includes the impact of changes in operating assets and liabilities related to the timing of cash receipts and disbursements that may not relate to the period in which the operating activities occurred. The Company is unable to project these timing differences with any reasonable degree of accuracy without unreasonable efforts. 

Free Cash Flow is a useful indicator of the Company's ability to internally fund its activities, service or incur additional debt and estimate our ability to return capital to shareholders. There are significant limitations to using Free Cash Flow as a measure of performance, including the inability to analyze the effect of certain recurring and non-recurring items that materially affect the Company's net income, the lack of comparability of results of operations of different companies and the different methods of calculating Free Cash Flow reported by different companies. Free Cash Flow does not represent funds available for discretionary use because those funds may be required for debt service, land acquisitions and lease renewals, other capital expenditures, working capital, income taxes, exploration expenses, and other commitments and obligations.

Adjusted EBITDAX

Adjusted EBITDAX is a non-GAAP financial measure that we define as net income, adjusted for certain items detailed below. 

Adjusted EBITDAX as used and defined by us, may not be comparable to similarly titled measures employed by other companies and is not a measure of performance calculated in accordance with GAAP. Adjusted EBITDAX should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for operating income or loss, net income or loss, cash flows provided by operating, investing, and financing activities, or other income or cash flow statement data prepared in accordance with GAAP. Adjusted EBITDAX provides no information regarding our capital structure, borrowings, interest costs, capital expenditures, working capital movement, or tax position. Adjusted EBITDAX does not represent funds available for discretionary use because those funds may be required for debt service, capital expenditures, working capital, income taxes, exploration expenses, and other commitments and obligations. However, our management team believes Adjusted EBITDAX is useful to an investor in evaluating our financial performance because this measure:

• is widely used by investors in the oil and natural gas industry to measure operating performance without regard to items excluded from the calculation of such term, which may vary substantially from company to company depending upon accounting methods and the book value of assets, capital structure and the method by which assets were acquired, among other factors;
• helps investors to more meaningfully evaluate and compare the results of our operations from period to period by removing the effect of our capital and legal structure from our operating structure;
• is used by our management team for various purposes, including as a measure of our operating performance, in presentations to our Board of Directors, and as a basis for strategic planning and forecasting: and
• is used by our Board of Directors as a performance measure in determining executive compensation.

There are significant limitations to using Adjusted EBITDAX as a measure of performance, including the inability to analyze the effects of certain recurring and non-recurring items that materially affect our net income or loss, the lack of comparability of results of operations of different companies, and the different methods of calculating Adjusted EBITDAX reported by different companies.

The GAAP measures most directly comparable to Adjusted EBITDAX are net income and net cash provided by operating activities.  The following table represents a reconciliation of Antero's net income, including noncontrolling interest, to Adjusted EBITDAX and a reconciliation of Antero's Adjusted EBITDAX to net cash provided by operating activities per our condensed consolidated statements of cash flows, in each case, for the three months and years ended December 31, 2023 and 2024 (in thousands). Adjusted EBITDAX also excludes the noncontrolling interests in Martica, and these adjustments are disclosed in the table below as Martica related adjustments.

Drilling and Completion Capital Expenditures

For a reconciliation between cash paid for drilling and completion capital expenditures and drilling and completion accrued capital expenditures during the period, please see the capital expenditures section below (in thousands):

Notwithstanding their use for comparative purposes, the Company's non-GAAP financial measures may not be comparable to similarly titled measures employed by other companies.

Antero Resources is an independent natural gas and natural gas liquids company engaged in the acquisition, development and production of unconventional properties located in the Appalachian Basin in West Virginia and Ohio. In conjunction with its affiliate, Antero Midstream Corporation (NYSE: AM), Antero is one of the most integrated natural gas producers in the U.S.  The Company's website is located at www.anteroresources.com.

This  release includes "forward-looking statements." Such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are not under Antero Resources' control. All statements, except for statements of historical fact, made in this release regarding activities, events or developments Antero Resources expects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future, such as those regarding our strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, estimated realized natural gas, NGL and oil prices, anticipated reductions in letters of credit and interest expense, prospects, plans and objectives of management,  return of capital, expected results, impacts of geopolitical and world health events, future commodity prices, future production targets, including those related to certain levels of production, future earnings, leverage targets and debt repayment, future capital spending plans, improved and/or increasing capital efficiency, expected drilling and development plans, projected well costs and cost savings initiatives, operations of Antero Midstream, future financial position, the participation level of our drilling partner and the financial and production results to be achieved as a result of that drilling partnership, the other key assumptions underlying our projections, and future marketing opportunities, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this release. Although Antero Resources believes that the plans, intentions and expectations reflected in or suggested by the forward-looking statements are reasonable, there is no assurance that these plans, intentions or expectations will be achieved. Therefore, actual outcomes and results could materially differ from what is expressed, implied or forecast in such statements. Except as required by law, Antero Resources expressly disclaims any obligation to and does not intend to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.

Antero Resources cautions you that these forward-looking statements are subject to all of the risks and uncertainties, incident to the exploration for and development, production, gathering and sale of natural gas, NGLs and oil, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the Antero Resources' control. These risks include, but are not limited to, commodity price volatility, inflation, supply chain or other disruption, availability and cost of drilling, completion and production equipment and services, environmental risks, drilling and completion and other operating risks, marketing and transportation risks, regulatory changes or changes in law, the uncertainty inherent in estimating natural gas, NGLs and oil reserves and in projecting future rates of production, cash flows and access to capital, the timing of development expenditures, conflicts of interest among our stockholders, impacts of geopolitical and world health events, cybersecurity risks, the state of markets for, and availability of, verified quality carbon offsets and the other risks described under the heading " Risk Factors" in Antero Resources' Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024.