Williams is landing laterals in the Green River Basin’s Lewis Shale bench after completing a $307 million JV buyout in Wyoming last year. (Source: Shutterstock.com)
Midstream firm Williams Cos. is flexing its upstream muscle in Wyoming’s Green River Basin.
Williams is landing laterals in the oily Lewis Shale after completing a $307 million buyout from a joint venture (JV) partner in Wyoming’s Wamsutter Field last year, Wyoming state data shows.
Full control of the Green River upstream asset helps Williams drive long-term value by better integrating with an existing midstream footprint in the area, CEO Alan Armstrong said in a fourth-quarter earnings call.
Historically a natural gas play tapped by vertical producers, the Lewis Shale in southwestern Wyoming shows significant upside for horizontal development.
A 2023 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) report estimated that the Lewis Shale held approximately 294 MMbbl of oil and 11.2 Tcf of natural gas. NGL volumes were estimated at 338 MMbbl.
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Wamsutter Field JV
Williams entered a JV with Denver-based Crowheart Energy to develop Wyoming’s Wamsutter Field in 2021.
Williams owned a 75% stake in the JV; Crowheart the other 25%.
The JV consolidated three legacy upstream positions in Wamsutter positions held by Crowheart, BP and Southland Royalty into a single upstream asset.
The JV asset included more than 3,500 operating wells and more than 3,000 future development locations.
Crowheart operated the upstream operations, while Williams retained full ownership of its gas gathering system in the area, including the Echo Springs gas plant.
Echo Springs processes 740 MMcf/d of natural gas and has an output capacity of 48,000 bbl/d of NGL.
“We gather, we process, we move the NGLs through our NGL infrastructure, we fractionate the NGLs, we market the gas, the NGLs from that basin,” said Chad Zamarin, Williams’ executive vice president of corporate strategic development, said on the earnings call.
Gross production from the asset averaged about 240 MMcf/d and 8,300 bbl/d as of December, according to Wyoming state data.
Williams acquired Crowheart’s 25% stake for approximately $25,000 per boe/d, the company said in investor materials.
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Lewis Shale oil
The Greater Green River Basin is well known for natural gas production. But Williams and Crowheart have more recently targeted shale oil in the Lewis interval.
The Late Cretaceous Lewis Shale member lies above the marginal marine Almond Formation of the Mesaverde group and below the shallow marine Fox Hills Sandstone, per USGS data.
Lewis is observed at vertical depths between 6,000 ft and 9,000 ft across the Greater Green River.
Crowheart filed completion reports for five horizontals landed in Lewis in 2024, according to Wyoming state data.
An Energy Advisors Group analysis found that the Lewis wells are competitive with wells drilled in more established Rockies plays, such as the Uinta and Powder River basins.
Among wells drilled in the Lewis:
- Crowheart’s Creston Nose #27-26-1LH IP-30’d at 1,722 bbl/d of oil and 3.34 MMcf/d of natural gas; The Lewis Shale well was completed in October 2024 in Carbon County, Wyoming; and
- The Creston Nose #27-26-2LH, also completed in Carbon County in October, with a 30 day IP averaging 1,652 bbl/d and 2.86 MMcf/d.
Among natural gas plays, the Lewis has long been overshadowed by bigger basins such as the Haynesville and Marcellus. And the Lewis is relatively obscure among notable oil plays.
“If you look at that basin from an upstream only perspective, you might not develop it the same way as you would when you think about maximizing the value of the downstream infrastructure,” Zamarin said.
But by leveraging its midstream capabilities, Williams will optimize a development program that pairs field-level economics with cash flow from the full integrated system.
“It’ll take a bit of time to dial that in,” Zamarin said. “And at that point, we’ll determine whether or not we need to be a long-term owner or we can then reposition the upstream asset with an upstream counterpart.”
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