About Toby Rice
Toby Rice, president and CEO of EQT, has been promoting the concept of "energy abundance" in recent public appearances. In a June 2026 speech at the ARC Conference, Rice argued that the world needs to triple energy production and consumption to lift billions out of energy poverty, stating that doing so could increase global GDP fivefold. He criticized the net-zero movement, saying it "created a world where energy had become the enemy and scarcity was celebrated." On CNBC in July 2026, Rice discussed EQT's quarterly results, noting that production beat guidance and that the company was increasing its production forecast by over 90 BCF while reducing capital expenditures. He also highlighted the company's role in meeting growing natural gas demand, citing over 45 projects totaling about 20 BCF per day of potential demand, much of which he said would appear in Appalachia.
In other appearances, Rice addressed the impact of geopolitical events on energy markets. On CNBC in June 2026, he stated that the Iran situation had "laid waste" to concerns that LNG exports would raise domestic prices, noting that international prices rose 50-80% while U.S. natural gas prices dropped. On the podcast "Longer Laterals," Rice discussed EQT's record for the longest lateral well drilled in the continental U.S., measuring over 5.12 miles, and emphasized the need for permit reform, saying "it should be harder to do the subsurface than it is the surface." He also expressed excitement about the "energy dominance" agenda, describing it as the most exciting time to be in energy since the shale revolution.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Toby Rice's recent appearances.
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Transcript (12 segments)
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Interviewer0:00
With us now in a CNBC exclusive to discuss the results and the energy market is EQT CEO Toby Rice. Toby, it's good to see you. Thanks for joining us.
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Toby Rice0:09
Yeah, happy to be here.
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Interviewer0:11
So, talk about the quarter here. I guess a little bit of a shortfall on the bottom line, but everything else, all the metrics otherwise met or exceeded guidance including production.
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Toby Rice0:23
Yeah, this has been another fantastic quarter. We are firing on all cylinders. The results speak for themselves. Production beat. We're increasing guidance by over 90 BCF. CapEx coming down so we're raising guidance on that as well. Operational records. We announced the longest well drilled in the US. Accelerating our pipeline situation and we're making a tremendous amount of strategic momentum announcing a number of deals. So, we're incredibly excited about this quarter. It's just a great example of what we're doing with EQT demonstrating the power of our platform as America's natural gas champion. We're certainly putting up some pretty big results.
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Interviewer1:02
Yeah, and when you look at nat gas prices at Henry Hub versus, you know, oil prices, they've remained low on a relative basis, Toby, and that's allowing people to use nat gas as an option to power for instance data centers. And I'm wondering how much of a head, excuse me, tailwind are data centers in that build out for you and can you talk to where the nat gas is going in terms of what sort of bring your own power setup is it fueling? Turbines, I mean, generator, what are we talking about?
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Toby Rice1:33
Yeah, I think you know, as you mentioned, natural gas prices have been a little shorter in the near term, but that is not going to overshadow what gives us tremendous amount of bullishness for natural gas. We're speaking specifically to the robust demand setup that we see shaping up in America largely driven by this power generation build out to power this AI revolution. What we're seeing is significant over 10 to 18 BCF a day of more natural gas for power needed to meet this power demand. It's a very strong theme when you pair that on top of the LNG demand that's coming. We're looking between 20 and 40 BCF a day of more natural gas demand. And EQT is right there in the middle of it. When we ask the question, 'Where is this demand going to show up?' A lot of this is going to show up in Appalachia. In our earnings deck, we put our view on the over 45 projects that we're tracking that would total about 20 BCF a day of demand. Now, for perspective, Appalachia produces about 35 BCF a day of demand. So, this is a significant amount of projects. Not all these will happen, but if just a small percentage of these do, it's going to be a tremendous impact. And one thing that's really important that we're highlighting is that EQT is capturing an outsized share of this demand. When you look at what we've done with Mountain Valley Pipeline to this recent deal we announced today, this CPV Shay deal, over 300 million a day of natural gas, a 2 GW power generation facility. EQT has created and will be a part of over 3 and 1/2 BCF a day of this demand that's been created just over the past couple years. So, we're right in front of this. That's what you need America's natural gas champion to do, and that's exactly how we're executing.
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Interviewer3:15
You mentioned this all comes kind of alongside the LNG opportunity. Does it reduce the need to accelerate some of the LNG export development things like that? Obviously, it's been kind of a slow go on some level.
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Toby Rice3:29
No, we need to continue to push the pedal on our LNG exports. Certainly, you look at the events that we're seeing right now, the tremendous value that US LNG is providing to the world in the energy security. And one of the most important things for people to recognize is we have the resource to unleash US LNG to also meet this power demand here domestically. And a good example of that is looking at prices. People were concerned that LNG exports are going to increase prices domestically. Well, what we're seeing is that international prices are over $19 in the United States, they're less than $3. So, what does that tell you? It tells you that we've successfully safeguarded Americans from these geopolitical shocks and this LNG demand is going to be something that's going to create a stronger natural gas economy domestically and that's going to allow us to do things like have this energy above ground to feed this power generation that we see coming domestically as well.
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Interviewer4:20
Are you accelerating those LNG efforts, Toby? And what is your projection for what that spread will be down the line? What are you sort of forecasting?
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Toby Rice4:30
So, EQT, we have signed up to take a portion of our gas and convert that into international pricing. We've worked by 2030, we'll have about 15% of our natural gas exposed to these international markets. We're incredibly excited about that positioning. This quarter, we announced an acceleration of our LNG exposure. We're going to be taking over half a million ton per annum for a 5-year contract starting in 2028. So, yes, we are looking to accelerate our plans, but ultimately, we are very well positioned for this LNG build-out and the robust international prices that we're seeing.
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Interviewer5:05
Toby, I really appreciate it. See the shares up about 1.4%. I know you got to get to the conference call. Thanks a lot for joining us.
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Toby Rice5:11
Thanks, guys.
