FORT WORTH, Texas —The Utica Shale in Appalachia might not be the flashiest play in the U.S., but its consistency has its rewards, said Zack Arnold, CEO and president of Infinity Natural Resources.
“You may have oil in West Texas. They may have gas in the northeast part of Pennsylvania. But for us to have true oil returns and true gas returns separated by about a two-hour truck drive gives us a lot of flexibility,” said Arnold, who spoke at Hart Energy’s SUPER DUG Conference & Expo on May 15.
The close location of the Utica and Marcellus allows Infinity to adjust depending on how the market reacts.
It’s an adjustment that has become useful over the past two years. Natural gas prices struggled under $2/MMBtu at the Henry Hub for much of 2024. This year, oil prices have shown volatility with ongoing trade disputes and OPEC’s announcement that it was increasing production.
“That flexibility and that balance has really allowed us to grow our company year-over-year. Even if gas prices languished last year and oil prices are weak this year, it gives us a lot of growth opportunity to continue to develop,” Arnold said.
In first-quarter 2025, the company reported total net daily production of 26,500 boe/d, with about 31% oil and 55% in liquids.
So far this year, complications from ongoing political battles have not been an overbearing problem for Infinity, and in some cases inadvertently helped the company’s bottom line.
Infinity bought its steel for the year before the tariffs kicked in, Arnold said, so the company is insulated on an expense that accounts for less than 5% of its annual budget. At the same time, one of the biggest costs for any company is fuel, and the price has gone down slightly through the year with the price of oil.
“A lot of times in a lower oil price environment like we're seeing today, the savings we see just in buying diesel fuel will offset whatever we're going to see as an increase because of the tariffs,” he said.
Arnold described the current plays in Ohio as more stable after years of being considered complicated and risky. The E&Ps that struggled in the area in the past explored and installed midstream assets to help with takeaway. New technologies and techniques have since opened the play into a far more profitable area.
“Those challenges then have turned into benefits now, because when you look at the Utica, the midstream infrastructure, the gas takeaway and the fractionation, all of those things are very well built out because of the pain that was felt in 2014, 2015,” Arnold said.