The story
In 1976, the company was founded as Lomak Petroleum, based in Hartville, Ohio. The company drilled wells in eastern Ohio.
In 1992, the company moved its headquarters to Fort Worth, Texas.
In 1997, the company acquired American Cometra for $385 million, which owned properties in the Permian Basin. It also acquired assets from Cabot Oil & Gas for $92.5 million.
In 1998, the company acquired Domain Energy for $214 million. The company also changed its name to Range Resources Corporation.
In 1999, the company formed a 50-50 joint venture with FirstEnergy called Great Lakes Energy Partners LLC to own properties in the Appalachian Basin. In 2004, the company bought the 50% interest in the venture that it did not own for $290 million, including the assumption of debt.
Before its major expansion into the Marcellus Shale, the company only held a small position in the Texas Barnett Shale and 9,000 "worn-out gas wells across the Appalachian basin that had been producing for 25 years". However, geologist William Zagorski, who worked for the company, used the knowledge of hydraulic fracturing gained working in the Barnett Shale (pioneered in the region by Mitchell Energy & Development) to attempt hydraulic fracturing in Appalachia, where according to CEO Jeffrey Ventura, "it worked on the first try".
In 2004, the company began operations in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania.
In 2005, the company built horizontal test wells in Mount Pleasant Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania and began production in the Marcellus Shale and in 2007, the company spent $200 million to acquire additional land nearby.
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In 2006, the company acquired Stroud Energy and its major position in the Barnett Shale for $450 million.
In 2010, Forbes called the company "King of the Marcellus Shale".The company had spent less than $1,000 per acre on average to acquire land suitable for drilling, compared to larger traditional oil and gas players who joined the exploration rush late in the game who had paid as much as $14,000 an acre.
In 2014, the company exchanged its assets in the Permian Basin with EQT Corporation for assets in the Nora Field in Virginia plus $145 million in cash.
In 2015, the company sold its assets in the Nora Field in Virginia to EnerVest for $875 million.
In 2016, the company acquired Memorial Resource Development for $4.2 billion in stock.
From Wikipedia’s article on Range Resources, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7