About Toby Rice
Toby Rice, president and CEO of EQT, has recently focused on the role of natural gas in meeting growing energy demand, particularly from data centers and artificial intelligence. Speaking on CNBC in June 2026, Rice said momentum around AI-related energy demand continues to build, citing over 5 Bcf/day of data center demand. He has also argued that geopolitical events, such as the situation in Iran, have demonstrated that U.S. LNG can provide energy security to allies while insulating American consumers from global price spikes, noting that international natural gas prices rose 50-80% while U.S. prices dropped 10 cents. Rice described natural gas as "America's superpower" and stated that the U.S. is emerging as a global energy powerhouse.
On earnings calls and at the Energy Future Forum, Rice discussed EQT's strategy and financial performance. He stated that EQT generated over $1.8 billion in free cash flow in the first quarter of 2026, a record for the company. Rice said EQT is in discussions with roughly a dozen proposed power projects for midstream and firm gas supply solutions. He also highlighted the company's commitment to net zero emissions and the launch of Energy Core, a vehicle to bring energy projects to underserved populations, stating that "the biggest concern on this planet facing humanity today is poverty" and that access to energy is key to addressing it. Rice noted that EQT is focused on investing in infrastructure, saying "if we build more, America pays less."
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Toby Rice's recent appearances.
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✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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Host0:00
All right, welcome back. Joining us now is president and COO of EQT operations of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and the biggest natural gas producer in the United States. That is Toby Rice, also known as AKA shale shale annual. Toby, it's great to have you on. We just ran into each other, literally ran into each other in DC last week, so it's great to have you back on the program. Obviously, listen, AI, you might have heard about this artificial intelligence thing. We had Dave McCormick on the program yesterday, senator from the great state of Pennsylvania where you live. Any sign of a slowdown in AI or demand for your natural gas?
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Toby Rice0:33
Yeah, Sully, good to see you again. And the AI theme is something that's really interesting. You know, remember when this was first an idea, people were thinking this possibly couldn't be as big as people are thinking it's going to be. I think a year later, I just spent some time in California. I came back thinking, man, this thing momentum continues to build on this theme right now. So, one of the things that is nice to see is that this is becoming a lot realer for people to see. We see over 5 BCF a day of natural gas demand currently under construction. We see turbine orders over 13 BCF a day. So, that's going to be a look into what's going in the future and stepping back around the world. You see turbine orders over 34 BCF a day. So, we think all in all, we're looking at a situation we can see anywhere between 15 to 18 BCF a day of more natural gas demand for this power theme. And keep in mind, data centers is not the only factor here that's driving this electrification. It's also bringing more reliability to the grid, helping lower Americans' energy bills. Remember, energy bills in this country up over 40%. That's before Iran, that's before data centers. So, it's not just a data center theme, but that's certainly driving it.
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Host1:40
Well, we talked to the previous break. We're talking about stocks. I know you're not a stock guy, don't worry about it, Toby, except for your own, of course. But, we talked about Caterpillar. One of the reasons Caterpillar stock has done so well is they've learned to convert their big giant engines for tractors into things that don't push gas along pipelines. Baker Hughes, it took General Electric airplane engines and helped convert it into these big turbines. You're talking about turbine demand, you're talking about the fact that demand for these products, if anything, hasn't slowed down, maybe it's sped up because you've got to buy these things before you can push your gas along a pipeline.
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Toby Rice2:15
Yeah, and Toby, I think the point you're making here, it's not just about turbines. This demand is spilling over into alternative technology. These simple cycle engines that you mentioned are one, fuel cells are another one. So, there's an insatiable demand for power. The key is going to be, can we get it built to meet the timing needs? And that's going to be the challenge. One thing I think it's worth for everybody to understand, when we talk about these numbers, very large, 18 BCF a day of natural gas power demand, just remember over the last 10 years, we've added about 15 BCF a day of natural gas power demand. So, this is not unprecedented. What is going to be the challenge though, is building this amount of power generation in a much shorter window of time. We need to see this happen over the next 5 years so that we can win the AI race and preserve our technological dominance.
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Host3:02
Hey Toby, I'm watching headlines coming in about the first named storm of the season, Tropical Storm Arthur, and the potential for it to disrupt exports of liquid natural gas. Do these big sort of weather systems concern you or do they end up just being blips that you factor for in the short term and can move past it?
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Toby Rice3:25
There's something we do look at, but I think you mentioned the way we do frame it up in our heads. These are short-term blips into the system. And these are going to continue to be a factor here. Not just domestically, but I think these geopolitical events that are happening around the world are other things that we probably spend more time thinking about. And one thing I think that's really important when we think about just getting through this whole Iran situation, there was a concern about LNG exports and that increasing prices to Americans. This Iran situation has laid waste to those concerns. What we've seen with this geopolitical event is that while international prices soared between 50 and 80% in the United States, natural gas prices dropped 10 cents. So, they're down here in the United States. What that tells you is that US LNG we can continue to provide energy security to our allies while insulating Americans from geopolitical shocks around the world. Hurricanes, a little bit of a different story. That's going to have an impact of driving demand and lowering prices here. But will be short-term in nature.
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Host4:27
Yeah. Toby Rice, EQT President and CEO. Thank you for joining us today. Appreciate that.
