Exclusive Q&A With EQT’s Sarah Fenton Every Metric Matters

_ Whether it’s rate of penetration or company culture, EQT has a metric for it. Those benchmarking efforts have helped the vertically integrated company grow and improve its performance in several areas. As of the end of last year, EQT represented 6% of US natural gas output, and its 2025 Appalachian Basin well productivity was 35% higher than its peer average, according to Enverus data. According to Sarah Fenton, EQT’s executive vice president of upstream, part of the Pennsylvania-based operator’s success comes down to their focus on benchmarking. JPT caught up with Fenton, who leads drilling, completions, production operations, and subsurface science and engineering for EQT’s 7.5 Bcf/D Appalachian Basin program, to learn how the operator is applying new technologies and processes in developing its wells, growing its inventory, improving its emissions metrics, and protecting its culture. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. JPT: How has advancing technology changed how EQT develops its wells? SF: We think of ourselves as very tech driven. There’s field technology and technology we use in the office. In field technology, there’s developing new wells, and there’s producing existing wells. Where we’ve come from a drilling and completions perspective is rather remarkable. Think back to where we were 20, 25 years ago. The rig capability, the hydraulic fracturing capability was, we’ll call it low-performing rigs and low-pressure equipment, heavy emissions, a lot of nonproductive time. Today at EQT, we develop about 1½ million feet a year, with about 110 wells to do that. And we need two to four drill rigs and two to three frac fleets. Years ago, just maintaining about 200 to 250 Bcf a year would’ve taken us a dozen rigs and a dozen frac fleets. We’ve come a long way in operational technology. That translates into our ability to develop wells with less resources and less capital costs, paired with our ability to go deeper and further. Years ago, it was one well on a pad, and it was a short lateral. Now EQT does combo development, which is the sequencing piece of our operations. We’ll bring two to four pads together, develop them together, 10, 20, 30, 40 wells at a time. Three-mile-plus laterals are normal for us. The longer we can go, the less dollar per foot it costs us, and combo development is going to keep our cost down. Operational technology ultimately translates into safety, efficiency, and cost savings. JPT: How do you identify and prioritize new technologies and methods to use in your developments? SF: At EQT, about 80% of our development is standard. We have a standard well design we have found that is best for market conditions. For us, 80% of our development gets that design. What’s beautiful about that is it establishes a baseline for operational performance, cost performance, and safety performance. The other approximately 20% of our development program is science and discovery. We are looking at how to evolve those well designs methodically. Science for us is improving well performance, and discovery is inventory growth.​​​​​