v3.26.1
Leases
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2026
Leases  
Leases

(12) Leases

The Company leases certain office space, processing plants, drilling rigs and completion services, gas gathering lines, compressor stations, and other office and field equipment. Leases with an initial term of 12 months or less are considered short-term and are not recorded on the balance sheet. Instead, the short-term leases are recognized in expense on a straight-line basis over the lease term.

Most leases include one or more options to renew, with renewal terms that can extend the lease from one to 20 years or more. The exercise of the lease renewal options is at the Company’s sole discretion. The depreciable lives of the leased assets are limited by the expected lease term, unless there is a transfer of title or purchase option reasonably certain of exercise.

Certain of the Company’s lease agreements include minimum payments based on a percentage of produced volumes over contractual levels and others include rental payments adjusted periodically for inflation.

The Company considers all contracts that have assets specified in the contract, either explicitly or implicitly, that the Company has substantially all of the capacity of the asset, and has the right to obtain substantially all of the economic benefits of that asset, without the lessor’s ability to have a substantive right to substitute that asset, as leased assets. For any contract deemed to include a leased asset, that asset is capitalized on the condensed consolidated balance sheet as a right-of-use asset and a corresponding lease liability is recorded at the present value of the known future minimum payments of the contract using a discount rate on the date of commencement. The leased asset classification is determined at the date of recording as either operating or financing, depending upon certain criteria of the contract.

The discount rate used for present value calculations is the discount rate implicit in the contract. If an implicit rate is not determinable, a collateralized incremental borrowing rate is used at the date of commencement. As new leases commence or previous leases are modified, the discount rate used in the present value calculation is the current period applicable discount rate.

The Company has made an accounting policy election to adopt the practical expedient for combining lease and non-lease components on an asset class basis. This expedient allows the Company to combine non-lease components such as real estate taxes, insurance, maintenance and other operating expenses associated with the leased premises with the lease component of a lease agreement on an asset class basis when the non-lease components of the agreement cannot be easily bifurcated from the lease payment. Currently, the Company is only applying this expedient to certain office space agreements.

(a)Supplemental Balance Sheet Information Related to Leases

The Company’s lease assets and liabilities consisted of the following items (in thousands):

(Unaudited)

December 31,

June 30,

Leases

 

Balance Sheet Classification

 

2025

 

2026

Operating Leases

Operating lease right-of-use assets:

Processing plants

Operating lease right-of-use assets

$

1,135,203

1,027,181

Drilling rigs and completion services

Operating lease right-of-use assets

54,968

160,370

Gas gathering lines and compressor stations (1)

Operating lease right-of-use assets

912,073

789,992

Office space

Operating lease right-of-use assets

28,400

25,771

Office, field and other equipment

Operating lease right-of-use assets

1,865

2,259

Total operating lease right-of-use assets

$

2,132,509

2,005,573

Operating lease liabilities:

Short-term operating lease liabilities

Short-term lease liabilities

$

514,717

530,520

Long-term operating lease liabilities

Long-term lease liabilities

1,610,341

1,467,889

Total operating lease liabilities

$

2,125,058

1,998,409

Finance Leases

Finance lease right-of-use assets:

Vehicles

Other property and equipment

$

3,486

2,638

Total finance lease right-of-use assets (2)

$

3,486

2,638

Finance lease liabilities:

Short-term finance lease liabilities

Short-term lease liabilities

$

1,539

1,149

Long-term finance lease liabilities

Long-term lease liabilities

1,947

1,489

Total finance lease liabilities

$

3,486

2,638

(1)Gas gathering lines and compressor stations relate to Antero Midstream. See “—‍Related Party Lease Disclosure” for additional discussion.
(2)Financing lease assets are recorded net of accumulated amortization of $3 million and $2 million as of December 31, 2025 and June 30, 2026, respectively.

The processing plants, gathering lines and compressor stations that are classified as lease liabilities are classified as such under FASB ASC Topic 842, Leases, because Antero (i) is the sole customer of the assets and (ii) makes the decisions that most impact the economic performance of the assets.

(b)Supplemental Information Related to Leases

Costs associated with operating and finance leases were included in the unaudited condensed consolidated statement of operations and comprehensive income (in thousands):

Three Months Ended June 30,

Six Months Ended June 30,

Cost

 

Classification

 

Location

 

2025

 

2026

 

2025

 

2026

 

Operating lease cost

Statement of operations

Gathering, compression, processing and transportation

$

406,240

430,839

801,361

858,037

Operating lease cost

Statement of operations

General and administrative

3,318

2,626

6,459

5,981

Operating lease cost

Statement of operations

Lease operating

302

364

527

736

Operating lease cost

Balance sheet

Proved properties (1)

6,267

31,705

13,666

51,498

Total operating lease cost

$

416,127

465,534

822,013

916,252

Finance lease cost:

Amortization of right-of-use assets

Statement of operations

Depletion, depreciation and amortization

$

422

600

831

1,077

Interest on lease liabilities

Statement of operations

Interest expense, net

127

107

245

231

Total finance lease cost

$

549

707

1,076

1,308

Short-term lease payments

$

47,371

50,717

90,277

81,802

(1)Capitalized costs related to drilling and completion activities.

(c)Supplemental Cash Flow Information Related to Leases

The following table presents the Company’s supplemental cash flow information related to leases (in thousands):

Six Months Ended June 30,

 

2025

 

2026

Cash paid for amounts included in the measurement of lease liabilities:

Operating cash flows from operating leases

$

794,364

1,016,784

Operating cash flows from finance leases

245

231

Investing cash flows from operating leases

8,050

45,622

Financing cash flows from finance leases

710

657

Noncash activities:

Right-of-use assets obtained in exchange for new operating lease obligations

$

127,187

118,168

Decrease to existing right-of-use assets and lease obligations from operating lease modifications, net (1)

$

(14,453)

(6,510)

(1)During the six months ended June 30, 2025, the weighted average discount rate for remeasured operating leases increased from 5.5% as of December 31, 2024 to 5.8% as of June 30, 2025. During the six months ended June 30, 2026, the weighted average discount rate for remeasured operating leases decreased from 5.1% as of December 31, 2025 to 4.4% as of June 30, 2026.

(d)Maturities of Lease Liabilities

The table below is a schedule of future minimum payments for operating and financing lease liabilities as of June 30, 2026 (in thousands):

Operating Leases

Financing Leases

Total

Remainder of 2026

$

332,852

837

333,689

2027

568,835

1,003

569,838

2028

409,252

868

410,120

2029

322,117

364

322,481

2030

248,972

—    

248,972

Thereafter

408,821

—    

408,821

Total lease payments

2,290,849

3,072

2,293,921

Less: imputed interest

(292,440)

(434)

(292,874)

Total

$

1,998,409

2,638

2,001,047

(e)Lease Term and Discount Rate

The following table sets forth the Company’s weighted average remaining lease term and discount rate:

(Unaudited)

December 31, 2025

June 30, 2026

Operating Leases

Finance Leases

Operating Leases

Finance Leases

Weighted average remaining lease term

5.4 years

2.8 years

5.0 years

2.6 years

Weighted average discount rate

5.6

%

8.5

%

5.5

%

8.5

%

(f)Related Party Lease Disclosure

The Company has gathering and compression service agreements with Antero Midstream that include: (i) the second amended and restated gathering and compression agreement dated December 8, 2019, including the updates agreed to in principle as it relates to the HG Acquisition (the “2019 gathering and compression agreement”), (ii) a gathering and compression agreement from Antero Midstream’s acquisition in 2022 of certain Marcellus gathering and compression assets in an area of dedication (the “Marcellus gathering and compression agreement”) and (iii) a gathering and compression agreement from Antero Midstream’s acquisition in the second quarter of 2024 of certain central Marcellus gathering and compression assets (the “Mountaineer gathering and compression agreement”). The Company also had a compression agreement from Antero Midstream’s acquisition in 2022 of certain Utica compressors that was divested at the closing of the Utica Shale Divestiture on February 23, 2026 (the “Utica compression agreement” and together with the 2019 gathering and compression agreement, the Marcellus gathering and compression agreement and the Mountaineer gathering and compression agreement, the “gathering and compression agreements”). Pursuant to the gathering and compression agreements with Antero Midstream, the Company has dedicated substantially all of its current and future acreage in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania to Antero Midstream for gathering and compression services. The 2019 gathering and compression agreement, Marcellus gathering and compression agreement and Mountaineer gathering and compression agreement have initial terms through 2038, 2031 and 2026, respectively. Upon expiration of the Marcellus gathering and compression agreement and Mountaineer gathering and compression agreement, Antero Midstream will continue to provide gathering and compression services under the 2019 gathering and compression agreement.

Under the gathering and compression agreements, Antero Midstream receives a gathering fee per Mcf, a centralized compression fee per Mcf and high pressure gathering fee per Mcf, as applicable, subject to annual Consumer Price Index (“CPI”)-based adjustments. In addition, Antero Midstream receives fees for well pad compression that include (i) reimbursement of Antero Midstream’s third-party out-of-pocket costs plus 3% for well pad compression services provided by third-party-owned equipment and (ii) a cost of service fee that allows Antero Midstream to earn a return on capital invested of 13% per annum over a period of seven years for well pad compression services provided by Antero Midstream-owned assets. If and to the extent the Company requests that Antero Midstream construct gathering lines, centralized compressor stations and/or high pressure lines, the 2019 gathering and compression agreement contains options at Antero Midstream’s election for either (i) minimum volume commitments that require Antero Resources to utilize or pay for 70% of the centralized compression capacity and 75% of the high pressure gathering capacity of the requested capacity of such new construction for 10 years or (ii) a cost of service fee that allows Antero Midstream to earn a return on capital invested of 13% per annum over a

period of seven years. The Marcellus gathering and compression agreement provides for a minimum volume commitment that requires the Company to utilize or pay for 25% of the compression capacity for a period of 10 years from the in-service date. The Mountaineer gathering and compression agreement provides for monthly minimum gathering fees for each compressor station or high pressure gathering line, respectively, for a period of 12 years commencing 90 days after such asset’s in-service date. As of June 30, 2026, the minimum volume commitments for the 2019 gathering and compression agreement end in 2035, and the minimum gathering fees for the Mountaineer gathering and compression agreement end in 2026. As of January 1, 2025, there were no minimum volume commitments under the Marcellus gathering and compression agreement.

Upon completion of the initial contract term, the 2019 gathering and compression agreement will continue in effect from year to year until such time as the agreement is terminated, effective upon an anniversary of the effective date of the agreement, by notice from either the Company or Antero Midstream to the other party on or before the 180th day prior to the anniversary of such agreement.

Gathering and compression fees paid by the Company related to these agreements were $212 million and $237 million for the three months ended June 30, 2025 and 2026, respectively. For the six months ended June 30, 2025 and 2026, gathering and compression fees paid by the Company related to this agreement were $417 million and $468 million, respectively. As of December 31, 2025 and June 30, 2026, $85 million and $94 million, respectively, was included within accounts payable, related parties on the condensed consolidated balance sheets as due to Antero Midstream related to these agreements.