Investing.com -- Natural gas mineral and royalty company WhiteHawk Minerals (NYSE: WHK) made its debut on the NYSE this week, with shares opening above their IPO price after the company upsized its offering ahead of listing. WhiteHawk priced 7.7 million shares at $26 each, raising around $200M.

Following the listing, we spoke with CEO Daniel Herz about the company’s growth strategy, the outlook for U.S. natural gas demand, and the opportunities emerging from AI-driven power needs and expanding LNG exports.

Tell us about some of the recent developments at the company and more broadly for the industry leading up to IPO. Why now?

Daniel Herz: WhiteHawk was founded in 2022 with a very specific thesis: that natural gas mineral and royalty interests in the Appalachian and Haynesville Basins represented one of the most efficient ways to participate in the energy value chain — no capital expenditures related to drilling, minimal operating expenses, and with exposure to long-term structural demand for natural gas. We identified an estimated $3–$5 billion of natural gas minerals held by private equity funds nearing the end of their fund lives, with very few buyers of scale in the market. That imbalance gave us an attractive entry point.

Since inception, we’ve completed eight large acquisitions — making us the most active acquirer of natural gas mineral and royalty properties in the United States — including two transformative transactions in 2025: the acquisition of PHX Minerals in June and the Three Rivers Royalty acquisition in March. Together, those two deals substantially expanded our footprint and brought us to approximately 3.5 million gross DSU acres and an economic interest in roughly 13% of all U.S. natural gas production.

On the industry side, the backdrop has never been more compelling. Natural gas is the largest single source for electricity generation in the U.S., accounting for approximately 41% of total U.S. electricity generation in 2025. Nationally, we are now sitting at the convergence of two structural demand drivers for natural gas: the buildout of A.I. data centers requires tremendous amounts of electricity, and the continued expansion of U.S. liquified natural gas (“LNG”) export capacity to serve European and Asian buyers who are paying 3–4 times Henry Hub prices. The timing of the IPO reflects our confidence that these tailwinds are durable and that being a publicly traded vehicle gives us the currency and access to capital to continue executing our consolidation strategy at scale.

How does WhiteHawk plan to capitalize on the expected increase in natural gas demand from AI-related power generation and LNG exports?

Daniel Herz: Starting with AI and data centers: we have identified 21 publicly announced new or planned natural gas power plants and 28 new data centers near our Appalachian acreage in close proximity to our Appalachian Basin mineral position. Looking at just the A.I. and data centers in construction within or adjacent to our footprint that are in construction or at F.I.D., Management estimates an additional 4.0 Bcf/d, or more than 10% of regional demand, will come online starting in 2028. Looking at the total potential demand increase from everything planned in-basin, we see a potential for 11.1 Bcf/d, or more than 30% of regional demand. Our mineral interests sit in the core of the basins supplying that gas, which means more wells drilled on our acreage, more royalties flowing to us — without us spending a dollar on drilling.

On LNG: the EIA projects U.S. LNG export capacity will nearly double from approximately 17 Bcf/d in 2025 to nearly 34 Bcf/d by 2031. The Haynesville Basin, where we hold over 700,000 gross unit acres, sits within 150 miles of the Gulf Coast and is the primary feed-gas source for existing and planned U.S. LNG terminal — Sabine Pass, Cameron, Golden Pass, Port Arthur and Plaquemines. As export capacity grows, operators in the Haynesville will accelerate development to meet feed-gas demand, and we participate in that revenue without bearing any of the capital cost. Taken together, management estimates these two structural demand drivers will drive roughly a 36% increase in combined U.S. natural gas demand by 2031 compared to 2025 levels.

What will be your strategic priorities following the listing on the NYSE?

Daniel Herz: There are four priorities coming out of the IPO. First, we will continue our disciplined strategic acquisition strategy. With the management team’s more than $30bn of energy transaction experience, WhiteHawk is well positioned to continue to consolidate this space at highly accretive prices.

Second, we will scale our "ground game" — the smaller, direct acquisitions from individual mineral owners that complement our larger institutional transactions. The U.S. natural gas minerals market remains highly fragmented — there are many private owners and very few scaled consolidators. Upon completion of this offering, WhiteHawk will be the only public natural gas mineral and royalty company with meaningful, scaled exposure to both the Appalachian and Haynesville Basins. We have more than 33 times our current ownership potentially available for acquisition within our existing footprint alone, and we have built a sourcing network specifically around private equity funds nearing the end of their investment cycles who need a buyer of scale.

Third, we will maintain a conservative balance sheet with the significant cash flow predictability through WhiteHawk’s natural gas hedging commitment. Using natural gas fixed price swaps, WhiteHawk has more than 90% of expected volumes hedged for the remainder of 2026, more than 80% in 2027, and more than 60% in 2028.

And fourth, we will sustain and grow our dividend as production and cash flow expand.

How does WhiteHawk, and natural gas more broadly, compete with other energy types in meeting AI power demand — given large tech companies have signed major nuclear contracts? What is your role in the mix, and will it sustain once SMRs take off?

Daniel Herz: Natural gas is the largest single source for electricity generation in the U.S., accounting for approximately 41% of total U.S. electricity generation in 2025, and it earned that position because it is the most reliable, scalable and cost-effective source of baseload power available at scale today. Data center operators and hyperscalers cannot wait seven-plus years for grid interconnection queues or the commercialization timeline of small modular reactors. They need power now, and natural gas is what can be permitted, built and brought online within the relevant timeframe.

Our position is specifically in the Appalachian Basin, which sits in close proximity to the largest data center growth corridors in the country — Northern Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The 21 new or planned gas-fired power plants we’ve identified near our acreage aren’t being built as a backup plan to nuclear; they’re being built because that’s the resource that can reliably meet the load today and into the foreseeable future. Whatever the long-term energy mix looks like, the transition to that mix will be powered by natural gas, and our royalty interests put us at the very beginning of that value chain — collecting revenues on every Mcf produced, regardless of which power source ultimately displaces what.

What sort of return through dividends can investors looking to buy shares expect as the company completes more acquisitions?

Since our founding in 2022, we have paid 49 consecutive monthly cash dividends, totaling more than $40 million and representing a cash-on-cash return of approximately 38% to our initial investors through January 1, 2026 — plus an additional 41% increase in shareholder value over that same period. WhiteHawk will continue to pay a significant portion of its cash available for distribution to its shareholders.

The structural reason we can sustain and grow dividends is our business model: as a mineral and royalty owner, we bear no drilling capital expenditures. Our costs are essentially limited to production taxes, certain gathering and transportation expenses, and modest G&A. That means we can convert a very high percentage of royalty revenue directly into Cash Available for Distribution. As we continue to acquire high-quality, cash-flowing mineral and royalty interests in the Appalachian and Haynesville Basins — basins with long development runways and leading operators who are actively drilling — we expect production and royalty income to grow organically and inorganically over time.