Gulfport Profit Falls Sharply as Gas Prices Slide
Gulfport Energy's net income dropped 53% from a year earlier to $87.1 million as natural gas realizations fell to $2.48 per Mcf.
Gulfport Energy (GPOR) reported second-quarter net income of $87.1 million, down 53% from $184.5 million a year earlier, as lower natural gas prices squeezed the driller's cash generation even as it pressed ahead with an expanded Ohio land program. Adjusted EBITDA fell 16% to $179.1 million from $212.3 million.
The decline accelerated from the first quarter, when net income stood at $165.8 million and adjusted EBITDA reached $264.2 million. Adjusted free cash flow, which had come in at $118.9 million in the first quarter, dropped to $6.4 million.
The natural gas independent's realized gas price without derivatives fell to $2.48 per Mcf from $4.90 in the first quarter and $2.97 a year earlier, pulling the total realized price down 12% year-over-year to $2.99 per Mcfe. Total revenue fell 28% to $323.2 million from $447.6 million, reflecting both weaker commodity prices and a smaller derivatives gain of $61.7 million compared with $136.1 million a year earlier.
Production averaged 962.8 million cubic feet equivalent per day, down 4% from 1,006.3 MMcfe/day a year earlier and off from 996.8 MMcfe/day in the first quarter. The SCOOP segment drove the decline, falling 21% year-over-year to 162.8 MMcfe/day, while Utica and Marcellus output held roughly flat at 800.0 MMcfe/day versus 800.6 MMcfe/day, continuing a shift in Gulfport's production mix toward its Utica and Marcellus acreage. Production costs also crept higher, with lease operating expense rising to $0.23 per Mcfe from $0.19.
Gulfport narrowed its full-year 2026 base capital expenditure guidance to approximately $430 million, including $35 million for maintenance land and seismic work, tightening from the $400 million-to-$430 million range set out with fourth-quarter 2025 results. Quarterly capital spending rose to $148.6 million from $121.7 million in the first quarter.
The company disclosed a new discretionary acreage program targeting an additional $140 million of spending through year-end 2026, on top of $40.3 million already deployed in the second quarter. That follows a prior four-quarter, $102.4 million acquisition program that wrapped up in the first quarter with a final $39.5 million outlay. Within that spending, an Ohio state land acquisition added 4,700 net undeveloped acres and roughly 16 net wet gas locations, which would expand its total Utica net inventory by more than 20% and extend its development runway by more than 2.5 years.
Share repurchases slowed to $70.0 million, or 392,200 shares, from $172.8 million and 866,000 shares in the first quarter, when buybacks had reached the highest quarterly level in the company's history. Gulfport reported liquidity of $772.4 million as of June 30, including $1.1 million in cash and $280.0 million of revolver borrowings, following a spring 2026 borrowing-base redetermination that reaffirmed the $1.1 billion base and raised elected commitments 10% to $1.1 billion.
Gulfport also disclosed that Chief Financial Officer Michael Hodges will resign effective August 5, 2026, remaining in an advisory role through September 1. The departure adds a second executive-transition item alongside the CEO search referenced in the company's prior two quarterly releases.