Antero Midstream Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Record financial performance: Second-quarter adjusted EBITDA reached a company-record $289 million, while $80 million of free cash flow was generated after dividends—the 12th consecutive quarter of positive free cash flow after dividends. Management expects high-single-digit sequential EBITDA growth in the third quarter and reaffirmed its ability to meet full-year guidance.
  • Positive Sentiment: Strong balance sheet and liquidity: Pro forma leverage fell to 2.8x after receiving more than $370 million from Veolia, below the company’s 3.0x target. Antero Midstream plans to retire its nearest-term 2028 maturity and replace it with lower-cost, pre-payable credit-facility debt, leaving no near-term maturities.
  • Positive Sentiment: Regional infrastructure growth: The company plans to invest approximately $200 million–$300 million over the next two to three years on East Side Express, a 1.5–2.0 Bcf-per-day intrastate pipeline underwritten by Antero Resources, with potential third-party connectivity. Management is also evaluating roughly $3 billion of additional infrastructure opportunities tied to power generation, data centers and other Appalachian demand growth.
  • Positive Sentiment: Volume and productivity momentum: Gas gathered increased nearly 20% year over year to more than 4.1 Bcf per day, helped by the HG Midstream acquisition. Early results from Antero Resources’ return to the dry-gas Marcellus showed estimated recoveries more than 60% above comparable offset wells, while connecting the HG water system is expected to support additional EBITDA growth in 2027.
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Earnings Conference Call
Antero Midstream Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Greetings, and welcome to the Antero Midstream Corporation Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. You will be placed into question queue at any time by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Dan Katzenberg, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Dan Katzenberg
Dan Katzenberg
VP of Investor Relations at Antero Midstream Corporation

Thank you for joining us for Antero Midstream second quarter investor conference call. We will spend a few minutes going through the financial and operating highlights. Then we will open it up for Q&A. I would also like to direct you to the homepage of our website at anteromidstream.com, where we have provided a separate earnings call presentation that will be reviewed during today's call. Today's call may contain certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to the earnings press release for important disclosures regarding such measures. Joining me on the call today are Michael Kennedy, CEO and President of Antero Midstream, Justin Agnew, CFO of Antero Midstream, and Lenny Krueger, CFO of Antero Resources. With that, I will turn the call over to Mike.

Michael Kennedy
Michael Kennedy
CEO and President at Antero Midstream Corporation

Thanks, Dan. Good morning, everyone. I'll start my comments on slide number three. Last year has been an exciting year for growth in Appalachia, and more importantly, Antero Midstream. During the second quarter, we gathered over 4.1 BCF per day of gas, which was almost a 20% increase year-over-year. This growth was driven by the successful integration of the HG Midstream assets. This increased scale, premier footprint, and strong balance sheet positions Antero Midstream to capture the abundant opportunities that are beginning to materialize in the region. To this point, we've seen an acceleration of new gas-fired power generation project announcements and supply deals, including a 2 GW combined cycle power plant in Doddridge County, West Virginia, accessed by AM's joint venture pipeline. We expect this trend to continue as final investment decisions and construction startups accelerate, providing increased visibility into the Appalachian demand growth story.

Michael Kennedy
Michael Kennedy
CEO and President at Antero Midstream Corporation

Looking ahead, we are positioning our infrastructure to support the significant demand growth over the next several years. This starts with beginning construction on our first intrastate regional pipeline called East Side Express. This large diameter east to west pipeline will enhance the regional connectivity of our dry gas gathering system with several downstream market outlets. We plan to phase in this project over the next several years as new market opportunities arise, with the objective of increasing optionality and supporting low cost dry gas growth. As the industrial builder in the state of West Virginia that gathers half of the gas produced in the state, we view this project as step one in positioning Antero Midstream to capture the incremental production needed to fulfill the visible demand growth. In our view, this production growth will have to come from high quality investment-grade producers with multi-decade inventories like Antero Resources.

Michael Kennedy
Michael Kennedy
CEO and President at Antero Midstream Corporation

In addition to this project, the opportunity set ahead of Antero Midstream is larger than ever. In aggregate, we are evaluating several billion dollars of infrastructure opportunities within the region and will be selective with projects that are near-term, actionable, and accretive to our free cash flow and generate attractive rates of return. Before turning the call over to Justin, I wanted to briefly touch on the early results we are seeing on our first return to the dry gas Marcellus in over a decade. As you can see on slide number four, EURs on our revisit were over 60% higher than offset wells completed the last time we were actively developing the area. This highlights the productivity improvements from enhanced completion designs and validates the decades of underlying resource that underpins the growth outlook at Antero Midstream. With that, I'll turn the call over to Justin.

Justin Agnew
Justin Agnew
CFO at Antero Midstream

Thanks, Mike. I'll start with our second quarter highlights on slide number five. The second quarter represents the first full quarter of contribution from the recently acquired HG assets, which have been successfully integrated. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter was a company record $289 million, which was a 2% increase year-over-year, driven by an increase in gathering volumes. Looking ahead to the third quarter, we expect high single-digit sequential EBITDA growth in Q3 driven by increased volumes, which keeps us on track to achieve our full year EBITDA guidance. Capital invested during the quarter was $47 million, which helped generate $80 million of free cash flow after dividends. This quarter marks the twelfth consecutive quarter of generating free cash flow after dividends, highlighting the consistency and durability of cash flows over the last three years.

Justin Agnew
Justin Agnew
CFO at Antero Midstream

I'll conclude my prepared remarks on slide number six, which highlights our pro forma balance sheet and maturity schedule. In July, we received over $370 million of damages and interest from Veolia. Pro forma for these proceeds, our leverage was 2.8 times as of June 30th, below our 3 times target and well ahead of schedule. Excess cash on hand and available capacity under our undrawn credit facility positioned us to call our nearest term 2028 maturity at par. As a result, we have no near-term maturities, and we've converted that debt into lower cost, pre-payable debt on our credit facility while maintaining significant liquidity. This financial flexibility is critical in today's environment as we position Antero Midstream to execute on the large opportunity set Mike referenced in his remarks.

Michael Kennedy
Michael Kennedy
CEO and President at Antero Midstream Corporation

Flexibility and project opportunity set, in addition to our organic growth strategy, position us well to continue delivering shareholder value over the long term and enhance our return of capital to shareholders. With that, operator, we are ready to open up for Q&A.

Operator

Thank you. We'll now be conducting a question and answer session. If you'd like to be placed into question queue, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you'd like to remove yourself from the queue, please press star two. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. Our first question today is coming from John Mackay from Goldman Sachs. Your line is now live.

John Mackay
John Mackay
Analyst at Goldman Sachs

Hey, guys. Thank you for the time. Let's start on East Side Express. Just wondering if there's a little more you can share with us in terms of CapEx expectations and the contracting side. Is this AR underwriting? Are you looking to get customers on the demand side to underwrite? Maybe just walk us through the spending and the return profile.

Michael Kennedy
Michael Kennedy
CEO and President at Antero Midstream Corporation

Yeah, it's really AR underwriting. It's $200 million-$300 million over the next two to three years. I think about kind of $100 million each year. I think it has seven interconnects, with long haul pipelines. Big pipe, 1.5 to 2 BCF a day. There will be opportunities, solely underwritten by Antero Resources and its development plans, with optionality to get third party business and connect with all those different pipes.

John Mackay
John Mackay
Analyst at Goldman Sachs

That's helpful. Thank you. Maybe just looking broadly, you mentioned the several billion dollars of opportunities. Maybe just walk us through some of the general buckets that could include. Is there anything in there that could kind of dovetail with some of the cost-saving initiatives that AR has been talking about? Should we kind of think about this as pretty separate?

Michael Kennedy
Michael Kennedy
CEO and President at Antero Midstream Corporation

I think you've heard about all the different power plant construction, data center construction in West Virginia. That's capturing that from a midstream perspective, building these type of regional pipelines, or laterals off of existing pipelines, to those type of projects. I referenced it on the AR call, but a decade ago, a good go by was the Stonewall Pipeline. We had to farm that out. We didn't have the ability to build that internally, whether from capital or expertise. Now that's not the case. We are the builder in this area of the world. We have 1 million acres dedicated to us from AR. We have all these demand projects and power plants within that acreage or close to it. We will be building those pipelines and laterals for those type of projects within the state of West Virginia.

John Mackay
John Mackay
Analyst at Goldman Sachs

Appreciate that. Maybe just a clarification. Is there a kind of timeframe on that that you can throw out there?

Michael Kennedy
Michael Kennedy
CEO and President at Antero Midstream Corporation

This is our first one, the East Side Express. That's over the next two to three years. That's a 2028, 2029 timeframe. We're hopeful to announce more in the near term.

John Mackay
John Mackay
Analyst at Goldman Sachs

Clear. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Next question is coming from Jeremy Tonet from J.P. Morgan. Your line is now live.

Jeremy Tonet
Jeremy Tonet
Analyst at J.P. Morgan

Hi. Good morning.

Michael Kennedy
Michael Kennedy
CEO and President at Antero Midstream Corporation

Morning.

Jeremy Tonet
Jeremy Tonet
Analyst at J.P. Morgan

Just wanted to peel back that several billion of CapEx opportunities, as you said there. It sounds like some of this could be servicing third parties beyond AR here. Just wondering, that part of the business, how much opportunity you see to grow, as far as servicing other producers or just, in general, moving beyond what AR provides?

Michael Kennedy
Michael Kennedy
CEO and President at Antero Midstream Corporation

Yeah. I'm looking at a project backlog right now. There's 15 projects that generally make that up, all within the state of West Virginia. That's what we're looking at. Antero Midstream could be involved solely or more, probability-wise with AR's gas. We're way more comfortable with AR as a supplier of that. AR, of course, we know exactly when they drill wells and where the gas goes and very confident in that throughput. Probably most likely associated with AR, but there are 15 projects on this list I'm looking at right now, and AR is probably half of them.

Jeremy Tonet
Jeremy Tonet
Analyst at J.P. Morgan

Got it. Thank you for that. Just pivoting towards water here, just wondering what opportunities on the water beneficial reuse side you might see there. Given disposal cost much higher in the Northeast, versus Texas, does that create more incentive, economic benefit to recycle here? Just wondering any updates there.

Michael Kennedy
Michael Kennedy
CEO and President at Antero Midstream Corporation

For AR, it's terrific to have a closed loop water system that it's in a kind of cost plus 13 versus the kind of the disposal cost that you referenced. That's great for AR. Also great for AM because that closed loop system is the freshwater distribution, where it gets nice returns, both from a freshwater distribution and also from a produced water disposal reuse case. Really a benefit to both parties. Also allows AR to complete in that 14, 15, 16 stages range and not have water be a logistics issue. Very beneficial to both. We'll connect the HG system. We're connecting it as we speak. That will be what's responsible, and it could be more than this, but what we've talked about on the high single digit EBITDA growth for 2027.

Michael Kennedy
Michael Kennedy
CEO and President at Antero Midstream Corporation

That's just connecting the water systems to get the water down to the HG area. That'll benefit us going forward into 2027 with the EBITDA growth on top of what we had this year.

Jeremy Tonet
Jeremy Tonet
Analyst at J.P. Morgan

Got it. That's very helpful there. Apologies if I missed the details on the AR call. With regards to power generation investment, the governor has a 50 by 50 goal, clearly a lot of appetite in state to develop new generation there. Just wondering, I guess, Antero's appetite to more fully, I guess, embrace that build-out going further downstream, what have you. Just any thoughts on that side?

Michael Kennedy
Michael Kennedy
CEO and President at Antero Midstream Corporation

We fully embrace that. We're the only investment-grade producer in West Virginia that's focused solely on West Virginia. We are the midstream builder. We've built everything up here over the last decade. You combine those two, and we produce about half of the state's gas. We would be the logical person to benefit or entities to benefit from that initiative the governor has.

Jeremy Tonet
Jeremy Tonet
Analyst at J.P. Morgan

Got it. I'll leave it there. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Next question is coming from Sunil Sibal from Seaport Global. Your line is now live.

Sunil Sibal
Sunil Sibal
Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Seaport Global

Yes. Hi. Thanks for the time this morning. Most of my questions have been hit, but I just had one clarification with regard to the opportunity to contract for the gas to ultimate consumer. I was curious, when you're talking for those contracts, are you contracting with the power producers in the region, or you're more focused on contracting with the data center entities, per se?

Michael Kennedy
Michael Kennedy
CEO and President at Antero Midstream Corporation

It's all of the above. Both. We're building the East Side Express, just knowing Antero's development and where that's going and where the interconnects are and just the opportunity set in front of us. We want to get in front of that and be positioned well, so when these opportunities present themselves, we are positioned to deliver gas to them.

Sunil Sibal
Sunil Sibal
Managing Director and Senior Analyst at Seaport Global

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Next question today is coming from Ned Baramov from Wells Fargo. Your line is now live.

Ned Baramov
Ned Baramov
Analyst at Wells Fargo

Yeah. Hi. Thanks for taking the question. Just wanted to go back to the timeline for additional infrastructure or intrastate projects you're currently working on. I think you noted you plan to announce potentially other projects soon. Was just wondering if construction of these projects would potentially overlap with that of the East Side Express project.

Michael Kennedy
Michael Kennedy
CEO and President at Antero Midstream Corporation

Yeah, not in 2026, but 2027 and beyond. That's probably a good assumption.

Ned Baramov
Ned Baramov
Analyst at Wells Fargo

Understood. I guess, you mentioned the AR contracts or AR will underwrite the project. Was just wondering if the contracts would be in a take or pay type of format, or will there be volumetric exposure from AM's perspective?

Michael Kennedy
Michael Kennedy
CEO and President at Antero Midstream Corporation

It's just acreage dedication from AR. Because we know where AR drills and the plans for drilling, there's no need for those MVCs because we know the volumes will be there.

Ned Baramov
Ned Baramov
Analyst at Wells Fargo

Understood. Maybe one more, if I could. It seems that curtailments will be used a little bit more to better align the timing of production at AR with gas prices. Can you talk about the impact to AM's results? Does this imply that volumes going forward will have a little bit more pronounced seasonality?

Michael Kennedy
Michael Kennedy
CEO and President at Antero Midstream Corporation

Yeah, no. I mean, we're talking $50 million a day. I think AM gathered 4.1 BCF, that's about 1% for maybe one quarter of the year. Maybe you're looking at 0.25%. That doesn't move the needle for AM.

Ned Baramov
Ned Baramov
Analyst at Wells Fargo

Very helpful. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We've reached the end of our question and answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over for any further closing comments.

Michael Kennedy
Michael Kennedy
CEO and President at Antero Midstream Corporation

Thanks, everyone, for joining the second quarter conference call today. If you have any follow-up questions, please reach out. Have a good day.

Operator

Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your line at this time and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.

Executives
    • Dan Katzenberg
      Dan Katzenberg
      VP of Investor Relations
    • Michael Kennedy
      Michael Kennedy
      CEO and President
    • Justin Agnew
      Justin Agnew
      CFO
Analysts