Infinity Buys Out PA Shale Well Co-Investor for $36M Using Co. Stock
Infinity Natural Resources, Inc. announced yesterday that it has acquired Chase Oil Corporation’s working interest in Infinity’s South Bend field in Pennsylvania in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $36 million. The assets are located in Armstrong and Indiana counties. The transaction has an effective date of January 1, 2026, and represents the company’s first use of stock currency to execute its post-IPO growth strategy. Infinity is in the process of buying Antero Resources’ Ohio Utica assets (see NOG & INR Partner to Buy Antero Resources’ Ohio Utica for $1.2B). On the surface, the Infinity press release is a standard announcement about a relatively small acquisition. However, for investors and industry observers (like MDN readers), it signals several specific strategic moves “between the lines”… Read More “Infinity Buys Out PA Shale Well Co-Investor for $36M Using Co. Stock”
The combined number of new permits issued to drill shale wells across the Marcellus/Utica region was 26 for the week of Dec. 22 – 28, more than double the 12 issued two weeks ago. Pennsylvania issued 15 new permits, Ohio issued 6, and West Virginia issued 5. Among the companies receiving new permits were Antero, EOG, EQT, Hilcorp, INR, and Range Resources. 
The second round of big news coming from Antero Resources today is the sale of the company’s Utica Shale assets. We told you in November that Antero, the largest Marcellus/Utica (M-U) driller in West Virginia, officially began to market its Ohio Utica assets for sale (see 
Regional and national indicators are driving optimism in the Marcellus/Utica Basin, which currently supplies 31% of U.S. natural gas. Despite recent constraints from low prices and limited pipeline capacity, drillers like Infinity Natural Resources and Expand Energy now predict significant output growth coming in the new year. This resurgence is fueled by surging in-basin demand from AI data centers, major power plant conversions in Pennsylvania, and improved takeaway prospects, such as Boardwalk’s proposed Borealis pipeline to the Gulf Coast (see 
Earlier this month, we brought you the bombshell news that Antero Resources, the country’s fifth-largest natural gas producer and largest producer in West Virginia, is preparing to market its Ohio Utica assets, hoping to fetch $900 million to $1 billion (see 
Some interesting comments about the “deep” Utica Shale in Pennsylvania were made during last week’s Hart Energy DUG Appalachia event, held in Pittsburgh. Including this one, from Mike Hillebrand, CEO of Huntley & Huntley: “The deep Utica, watch out folks. The deep Utica will probably be the next up-and-coming deep shale play here in Pennsylvania.” Hillebrand also broke some big news by announcing Huntley & Huntley, which recently completed the sale of its Olympus Energy subsidiary to EQT for $1.8 billion, is working on its next startup, which will focus on “deep Utica and Tier II Marcellus.” 
MDN previously brought you the news that Infinity Natural Resources (INR) CEO Zack Arnold was interested in “lower level” deals to buy Utica Shale assets situated near INR’s existing leasehold positions (see