The Powder River Basin | July 2023

Field Overview

The Powder River Basin, known for its coal deposits, is located in Southeast Montana and Northeast Wyoming. The basin is named so because it is drained by the Powder River. Major cities in the area include Gillette and Sheridan, Wyoming, and Miles City, Montana. There is a recent resurgence in oil and gas production as a result of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. This resurgence is occurring mainly in the Wyoming part of the basin, historically known as the source of the basin’s oil.

State Drilling Statistics

Total Rigs in Wyoming- 19 (-)
Total Rigs in the United States- 664 (-10)
Total U.S. Rigs 12.4% YTD

State Permitting Data
Permits Approved (10/1/2022 to 4/30/2023) – 279

Powder River Top Producer

Top Producer – EOG

Basin Highlights

Gov. Gordon Applauds First Lease Sale of the Year

In Wyoming, the first oil and gas lease sale by the Bureau of Land Management in more than a year brought in about $14.7 million, or about $1.8 million more than the last sale.

 Of that income, 48%, or almost $7 million, will go to Wyoming. In a statement, Governor Mark Gordon praised the lease sale but pointed out that it only amounts to “not even a quarter of a loaf.” “The fact that our producers participated to the degree they did is a credit to the Wyoming oil and gas industry,” Gordon said in the statement. “Their efforts mean Wyoming will continue to provide energy for the Nation, even though they do so with increasing pressure from Washington, DC, to give up.”

Wyoming Plans Massive Wind Project

Government representatives from the federal and municipal levels have started construction on the TransWest Express Transmission project in the sagebrush desert of southeast Wyoming’s Carbon County. Wind tore through flags as U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland talked to a crowd about the 730-mile power line. A wind farm is also being built in the same region, which is along the I-80 corridor and is renowned for high winds of more than 20 miles per hour. About a million residences in areas like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Phoenix will eventually receive that electricity thanks to the power line. It is just one way the Biden administration is hoping to achieve 100% “clean energy” by 2035.

Wyoming Mother Upset about Oil and Gas Cartoon

A mother from Sheridan claims that a cartoon depicting an evil man running a “fracking well” that causes earthquakes is part of a larger issue with children’s media that demonizes the oil and gas industry. The Rainbow Rangers, a troop of girls with vibrant hair and a unicorn, are trapped in a cave when the entrance collapses due to earthquakes in an episode of the show called “The Big Dig.” The heroes eventually find a way out of the cave and head to the epicenter of the earthquakes, which turns out to be a “fracking well.” Despite the fact that what is portrayed as a fracking well is actually a drilling rig, the heroes quickly discover that a wicked man is operating the well to make a lot of money. The villainous fracking well owner snorts insane laughter as he gushes about how much he enjoys “the smell of fracking in the morning.” The villainous owner of the fracking well is finally persuaded by the Rainbow Rangers to switch out his gas-producing well for a solitary wind turbine. The antagonist, however, tries to trap the children in a booby trap he purchased with all the money he made from fracking because he is the avaricious monster he is.

Most Permit Approvals by Operator

Top Producers – Oil

Top Producers – Gas

Rig Count

Wyoming Oil Production

Wyoming Gas Production

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PETRO Engineering, PLLC via the following sources unless otherwise
noted:

www.eia.gov
www.drillinginfo.com
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