By Scott DiSavino

(Reuters) -U.S. energy company EQT, the country's second-biggest natural gas producer, plans to reduce capital spending but produce more energy in 2025, while rival Range Resources said it would hold expenditures and output relatively steady from 2024.

The companies released their spending plans late Tuesday alongside first quarter earnings statements. With U.S. gas prices forecast to rise in 2025, firms are expected to pull record amounts of gas out of the ground this year. [NGAS/POLL]

EQT said it planned to spend $1.950 billion-$2.070 billion on maintenance capital in 2025 and produce about 6.03-6.30 billion cubic feet of gas equivalent per day (bcfed).

That compares with spending of around $2.266 billion in capital in 2024 to produce an average of 6.10 bcfed.

EQT CEO Toby Rice attributed the forecast for higher production and lower spending to strong well performance, efficiency gains and synergies from the company's purchase of Equitrans Midstream in 2024.

"This underscores the tremendous momentum we're experiencing at EQT and we see no signs of slowing down as we look ahead," Rice said in the earnings release.

In its prior 2025 outlook, released in February with fourth-quarter results, the company said it expected to spend $1.950 billion-$2.120 billion and produce about 5.96-6.23 bcfed.

Separately, EQT said it agreed to spend about $1.8 billion to acquire upstream and midstream assets from Olympus Energy in Southwest Pennsylvania with net production of about 500 million cubic feet per day.

EQT expects to close the Olympus transaction in the third quarter of 2025 and did not include the impact of the pending acquisition in its 2025 guidance.

RANGE RESOURCES OUTLOOK STEADY

Range Resources, another big U.S. gas producer, said it planned capital expenditures of $650 million-$690 million in 2025 to produce about 2.2 bcfed. The forecast was unchanged from a spending and production outlook Range released in February.

In 2024, Range spent about $654 million in capital and produced around 2.18 bcfed.

Range also said it was collaborating with Liberty Energy and Imperial Land to supply gas to a proposed power generation facility in Washington County, Pennsylvania.

"The proposed power facility is expected to serve as a catalyst for attracting data centers and industrial operations seeking long-term, reliable, efficient energy solutions," Range said in its earnings release.

Other big U.S. gas producers, including the nation's biggest, Expand Energy, will report earnings in coming weeks.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York; Editing by Nia Williams)