In a deal that would combine the first company to pioneer the Marcellus Shale and the one that turned it into an industrial operation, EQT Corp. announced it intends to buy Range Resources Corp. in an all-stock deal that would value the combined company at $50 billion.

The two Appalachian operators announced their boards of directors unanimously approved the combination, and the deal is expected to close in the first quarter of next year, provided shareholders and regulators also approve it.

Texas-based Range Resources Corp. pioneered the Marcellus Shale, the formation that underlies much of southwestern, central, and northeastern Pennsylvania. It was almost exactly 22 years ago Monday that Range completed the stubborn Renz well in Washington County showing that horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques used in Texas can be deployed in Appalachia to extract the natural gas trapped in the tight rocks a mile or more under the surface.

“Is it destiny?” wondered EQT’s CEO Toby Rice on a call with analysts on Monday when told of the anniversary.

EQT, which grew out of the old Pittsburgh utility Equitable Gas, used its position in the Marcellus to become the largest gas producer in the country before the combination of two other players knocked it off its perch.

The proposed merger, which would give Range shareholders .987 shares of EQT common stock for each of their own, would be worth $12.8 billion using each company’s closing stock price on Friday.

Using EQT’s closing price on Friday, $55.63 per share, that would value each Range share at $54.90 – a 21% premium to Range’s closing price on Friday. At those levels, the value of the deal is $12.8 billion.

When the deal is done, Range shareholders will own approximately 27% of the combined company, which will be led by EQT’s executives and maintain a headquarters in Canonsburg.

EQT also agreed to expand its board of directors from 10 to 12, putting Range’s CEO Dennis Degner and another Range designee on it.

The EQT well site in Waynesburg.

“This transaction comes at a pivotal moment for America's economy, as the convergence of modern industry and energy ushers in a new era of growth,” Rice said during the call on Monday. “Nowhere is this transformation more evident than in Appalachia, which is emerging as the epicenter of the U.S. economic renaissance, with a significant inflection in natural gas demand on the horizon, driven by new power generation facilities and expanding pipeline infrastructure.”

The combined company would produce more than 9 billion cubic feet of gas daily, or 8% of all the natural gas produced across the U.S. It would restore EQT as the top gas producer in the U.S.

Degner said that Range shares “EQT's vision for the future of our industry and their conviction that the Appalachian Basin remains the crown jewel of the world's natural gas resources.”

In recent investor materials and earnings call, EQT has stressed that it will continue to develop natural gas guided not by short-term price swings but long-term contracts with international customers through liquefied natural gas deals, and even more importantly, with power plants across the U.S. and data centers whose ravenous appetite for electricity is creating opportunities for gas producers to lock in decades-long supply agreements.

One example is the redevelopment of the former Bruce Mansfield coal power plant which is now called Shippingport Industrial Park. Last year, EQT signed a supply agreement with Frontier Group, which is rebuilding the site for data centers and repowering the old coal plant with natural gas. On Monday, company leaders said the Range acquisition will make it even easier to supply the Beaver County campus since Range operates in the area.

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