Environmental

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Water

Our Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) department, led by our Vice President, EHS, oversees and manages our environmental footprint, including following water-related procedures and permit requirements. Our Completion and Production teams oversee the management of operations and associated water use. Our EHS team develops water-related procedures to enact best safety practices and manage environmental incidents, while our Production team develops operational procedures regarding the movement of water. We report on environmental progress each quarter, including any material environmental violations, to the Public Policy and Corporate Responsibility (PPCR) Committee of our Board of Directors (Board).

We operate within the Appalachian Basin, which has an abundant supply of water with low-to-moderate baseline water stress when compared to other basins in the United States. We use the World Resources Institute's Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas (WRI Aqueduct) Oil and Gas Weighting to evaluate whether the water we withdraw is from stressed areas. Based on our assessment of our 2024 water withdrawal sources using WRI Aqueduct, we determined that none of our water withdrawal sources are deemed high risk areas for water stress or water depletion.

Nonetheless, we recognize that water is a precious resource and aim to effectively manage our water use. Prior to any water withdrawal, we assess the water source to determine a reasonable rate that can be extracted without harm to the current uses supported by the water source, and we obtain approval from appropriate regulatory bodies as applicable. We also track historic seasonal conditions to establish a baseline for water availability from permitted surface water sources. We alter development schedules to allow water withdrawals during seasons when more water is expected to be available. Further, we use guidance from local government agencies to determine a reasonable flow rate for the bodies of water from which we withdraw, specifically the Susquehanna River Basin Commission.

Within our operations, we strive to minimize the quantity of freshwater used, mindfully select water sources close to our well pads to minimize transportation, and choose sources with adequate and sustainable capacity to support our withdrawal without impact to the watershed. Regulatory agencies in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio issue permits for water withdrawal based on the availability and quality of local supplies. We have procedures in place to comply with water permitting and reporting requirements. For example, we monitor changes in stream conditions through the U.S. Geological Survey website and record the volume pumped and pump time for all active water withdrawals. We use this data to confirm that pumping does not exceed allowable rates or daily volume limits. We immediately suspend water withdrawal activities during any instance of stream flows that drop below allowable levels.

To the extent possible, we use our own or third party–produced water for our operations to minimize freshwater withdrawals. The legacy Equitrans water system allowed us to reuse produced water at different well pads in prior years. With our acquisition of Equitrans in 2024, we gained visibility and control of water storage and pipeline operations, which may provide opportunities to increase recycling by allowing for more effective management of third-party connections. We use the following definitions in this report about water use and recycling:

We recycled 96% of our produced water in 2024, exceeding our annual goal of 92%.

We cooperate with state agencies to obtain permits for each of our water withdrawal sites, which include a full evaluation of each applicable watershed. We adhere to agency recommendations on flow rates and do not exceed the maximum daily allowance to protect the quality and quantity of each water source. We take surface water withdrawals per a state-approved water management plan to prevent withdrawal during low-flow conditions. This process also helps maintain adequate water for aquatic species and downstream users. In addition to surface water withdrawal, we obtain water from municipalities in accordance with contracts with local or regional municipal water suppliers. We oversee our contractors’ compliance with water withdrawal requirements with a daily review and approval process prior to water withdrawal.

To prevent impacts on water supplies that are within a few hundred feet of the surface, we closely monitor well integrity. To protect shallow aquifers, we use freshwater, soap, and air to drill the section of a well that could hold any freshwater. After drilling the freshwater section of the well, steel pipes (casings) are cemented in the borehole to protect groundwater and allow production of gas. We perform casing pressure tests and run cement bond logs as required by individual state regulations, and we send reports on these tests and logs to the applicable state agency. In 2024, we had zero well integrity failures that resulted in an adverse impact on the environment.

Our well-water protection program conducts both pre- and post-drill sampling at landowners’ private water supplies. We analyze water supplies (e.g., water wells, springs, ponds, streams) for general water quality constituents and metals, dissolved gas, petroleum constituents, and, if warranted, bacteriological parameters. We also follow the Marcellus Shale Coalition’s recommendation for pre-drill water supply surveys. We conduct multiple pre-drill samplings for all water sources within 3,000 feet of the site and post-drill samplings for sources within 1,500 feet of the site based on hydrogeological conditions and other factors as necessary to protect domestic water supplies.

We keep a database of pre- and post-drill results and submit analytical results to the property owners and relevant state environmental agencies. We examine any landowner concern brought to our attention. If we perceive an issue, we immediately conduct a thorough hydrogeologic review and coordinate with the appropriate internal and external stakeholders to address and resolve the issue.

We store fresh and recycled water in double-wall tanks and open impoundments, where allowed. Our impaired water impoundments, located exclusively in West Virginia, are inspected weekly and have leak detection systems. We do not currently have plans to create any new impaired water impoundments. In our other operating areas, we use tanks protected by containment that meet Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure best practices to store water produced during production. Containment at all unconventional sites is inspected monthly for adequacy.

To further improve water efficiency, we continue transitioning away from water transportation by truck. We are working to source all freshwater from pipelines to reduce truck traffic, carbon footprint, and air emissions. As of December 31, 2024, approximately 96% of the freshwater we consumed reached our sites using pipelines. This is the result of strategic investments we have made to develop and expand our water pipeline infrastructure. We continue to plan our fracturing and completions development schedule to align with times when local streams are expected to have greater flow, particularly in areas such as northern Pennsylvania.

In 2024, we gathered 41% of our production water, eliminating 10.6 million barrels (or 106,000 truck trips) from being hauled from well pads. Within that total, 36% of our production water was recycled via pipeline without ever being hauled in a water truck. This avoided transportation of 9.1 million barrels by truck and eliminated 87,000 truck trips. We also discharged 1.6 million barrels of freshwater from impoundments to nearby land areas, which eliminated an additional 16,000 truck trips.

During 2024, we acquired Equitrans’ water-related assets including 203 miles of freshwater pipelines, 53 miles of mixed-use water pipelines, and two centralized water storage facilities. Immediately following the acquisition, we completed a pipeline connection to a third-party operator, allowing for increased recycling capabilities through water sharing. Also, we completed a critical new pipeline connection between mixed-use networks in Pennsylvania and West Virginia in 2024. We expect this pipeline to improve West Virginia completions efficiency by 20% and allow for increased recycling opportunities via pipeline, further reducing the need for water trucking.

We allocated approximately $84 million of our 2025 budgeted capital expenditures to strategic water infrastructure investments, including the substantial completion of our West Virginia mixed-use water network. Our robust portfolio of EQT-owned and operated water infrastructure will serve as the backbone for optimal development of our wells while reducing environmental impacts and decreasing long-term operating expenses.

These infrastructure investments over the last five years have led to more than 98% of fresh water being delivered by pipelines to well pads and more than 35% of produced water being gathered and delivered without the use of trucking. We have also optimized the use of our centralized water facilities to route trucks shorter distances to the facilities rather than driving longer distances to well sites or to disposal or recycling facilities outside of our operating areas. These improvements have resulted in a reduction from a high level of approximately 500 trucks per day in 2018 to an average of 200 trucks per day in 2024.

In 2024, we continued to use tank-level monitors to prevent spills, alarms to prevent overfilling, and technology to identify leaks in lines as soon as they occur. We require water haulers to obtain water from cellars and secondary containment before they access produced water tanks. In doing so, we aim to proactively manage our cellars and containments, reducing the number of separate dispatches needed from water trucks to manage fluid levels. This procedure has led to a significant decrease in secondary containment compliance violations.

We are working to increase our operational visibility of water use in instances where water (primarily produced water) is transported by truck. We have installed global positioning system (GPS) and camera systems inside truck cabs and on trucks to provide a live view of the truck’s location. Additionally, we transitioned to a new electronic tracking platform for water hauling that provides integrated access to real-time truck locations from multiple service providers and contractors in a centralized place. This data improves visibility of forward- and driving-facing cameras and speeds to monitor the daily activity of each water truck.

We continue to use a scoring rubric to evaluate water haulers’ performance with a goal to balance safety, service, and cost performance. We provide our water haulers with a digitally-enabled scorecard to identify real-time scores and rankings across 14 hauler-specific performance focus areas, including speeding events and high tank issues. We regularly report scores and rankings to business partners and host open performance discussions to identify improvement opportunities. In 2024, we introduced a new incentive program to recognize the water hauler with the highest performance score each quarter. Reductions in water hauler safety events help limit the number and severity of accidents and overall impact of water hauling on local communities.

To improve our water footprint, we use the “Water App” — a logistics and data management tool — to optimize our trucking schedule, track coordination, and improve dispatch. The mapping function within the app also provides greater insight into our performance, allowing us to improve overall water recycling and cost savings. In 2024, we continued to use Bluetooth meter technology to compare volumes hauled by individual water trucks against the legal weight limits for the roadway areas where each truck was traveling. We compiled results and reported to contractors to reveal and optimize their percentage of overweight and underweight loads. We strive to prevent overweight loads to protect the roads in the communities where we operate, and we try to minimize underweight loads to reduce the number of required water truck trips and their associated emissions. As a result of these efforts, our water hauling fleet's overall compliance with legal roadway weight limits improved by 10% throughout 2024.

In addition to adhering to applicable local and federal regulations, we follow best practices for safe wastewater disposal. We frequently evaluate wastewater treatment technologies with the potential to reduce disposal amounts further.

We work to recycle most of our wastewater generated from production activities by collecting flowback, drilling, and produced water to reuse when fracturing new wells. We collaborate with local peers to promote sharing wastewater for reuse and have 36 active sharing agreements in place with other natural gas producers across the Appalachian Basin. These agreements generated approximately $7.6 million in cost savings in 2024 by reducing our water costs and annual transportation and disposal expenses. Over the last 3 years, we have recycled on average over 91% of the water produced from our drilling and completions operations. In 2024, we recycled 96% of our produced water.

To enhance our recycling capabilities, we use third-party storage facilities to safely store wastewater until it is ready for reuse. We do not use any wastewater for purposes other than hydraulic fracturing. We have reciprocal arrangements with other producers in Appalachia to reuse each other’s wastewater in hydraulic fracturing operations. In 2024, we recycled approximately 3 million barrels of our wastewater through use in other operators’ frac locations. In turn, we received over 8 million barrels of water produced by other operators for use in our operations. Overall, this resulted in over 11 million fewer barrels of freshwater withdrawn from the environment.

Building upon prior projects, in 2024, we conducted an additional small-scale produced water evaporation project in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The project eliminated 176 water truck trips and saved $200,000 on a single well pad.

Any wastewater that cannot be recycled is disposed of at permitted commercial disposal facilities, and we conduct routine inspections of these facilities to confirm compliance with operating permits. Additionally, we typically employ underground injection control wells in Ohio, where geologic formations are most suitable for injection. We understand that seismic activity due to wastewater disposal can be a concern for stakeholders. Deep-well injection represented approximately 4% of our total wastewater disposal in 2024, which is similar to 2023. Water that we do not recycle is generally located either in areas where it is not logistically feasible to transport water to active operations or where water quality concerns make recycling impractical. We frequently explore alternatives to injection for any wastewater we are unable to recycle. We regularly evaluate technologies that range from small-scale units designed to reduce wastewater from individual well pads to larger centralized plants.

Natural gas extraction often involves hydraulic fracturing — the process of injecting fluid into the well to create pressure to crack the underground shale formation and release the natural gas contained in the formation. The fluid injected into the well, referred to as fracturing fluid, comprises water mixed with sand and a small percentage of chemical additives. To reduce the potential for groundwater impacts, we complete our wells with multiple layers of steel casing and cement through a process known as triple casing, which seals and isolates freshwater zones.

We are proud to be a charter registrant of FracFocus.org, an independent website created by the Ground Water Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission to disclose chemicals used during hydraulic fracturing. We publicly disclose, via FracFocus, all the chemicals used in our hydraulically fractured wells and regularly update such disclosures.^[1]

Additionally, we continuously explore more environmentally friendly alternatives for our fluids. We do not use diesel additives^[2] in our fracturing fluid and have worked to optimize and reduce the amount of other chemicals used.