EQT to acquire Olympus for $1.8bn

EQT announced that it had agreed to acquire the upstream and midstream assets of Blackstone-backed Olympus Energy for $1.8bn. The announcement came as part of the company’s first-quarter earnings release on April 22.

The assets will be paid for with a mix of $500mn in cash and around 26mn shares of EQT stock worth $1.3bn, based on the 20-day volume-weighted average price of the stock as of April 21. The acquisition is located within EQT’s existing area of focus in Appalachia, and will expand the company’s footprint in the Marcellus shale.

In its announcement, EQT described the assets being acquired as comprising a “vertically integrated, contiguous” 90,000 net acre (364 square km) position offsetting its existing core acreage in Southwest Pennsylvania. The assets have net production of around 500mn cubic feet (14.2mn cubic metres) per day. EQT said it expected the assets to generate average annual adjusted EBITDA of around $530mn and unlevered free cash flow of roughly $270mn over the next three years.

Olympus is estimated to have over 10 years of Marcellus inventory at maintenance activity levels, which EQT described as high quality, with an additional seven years of upside from the Utica shale. It added that Olympus’ “integrated platform and high-quality inventory drives an unlevered free cash flow breakeven price comparable to the company's peer-leading cost structure”.

Olympus’ output is a fraction of what is produced by EQT – which totalled 571bn cubic feet (16.2bn cubic metres) of gas equivalent in the first quarter of 2025. However, EQT noted on its first-quarter earnings call that assets are located adjacent to several proposed power generation projects in the region, “providing potential strategic value upside through future gas supply deals”.

EQT also reported net income of $315mn for the first quarter of 2025, up from $103mn in the same quarter of 2024. The company said its capital expenditures for the latest quarter came in at $497mn, 19% below the mid-point of guidance, owing to lower-than-expected completions, land and midstream spending.

Additionally, EQT said it was raising its 2025 production guidance by 25 bcf (708 mcm) of gas equivalent and lowering the mid-point of 2025 capital spending by $25mn. It attributed this to continued efficiency gains, strong well performance and additional synergy capture from its ownership of the gathering, transmission and storage assets acquired from Equitrans Midstream.