Anschutz Exploration Corp. is leading full-scale development of the Powder River Basin’s oily stacked pay.
Denver-based Anschutz (AEC) began focusing on the Powder River horizontal oil play in late 2014 to early 2015.
The company cleaned up its portfolio and zeroed in on the Northern Rockies region, CEO Joe DeDominic told Hart Energy. AEC also holds assets in the Uinta and Piceance basins.
Over the past decade, AEC has grown into Wyoming’s top oil producer. The company produced an average of 48,000 bbl/d of crude in 2024, according to Wyoming state data.
AEC is currently producing around 60,000 boe/d, DeDominic said in a June interview.
Wyoming’s second-largest oil producer is EOG Resources, which produced about 41,000 bbl/d from the Powder River Basin last year. Last year, EOG completed 27 Powder wells in the Niobrara, Mowry, Turner and Parkman benches.
The stacked pay potential of the Powder River Basin is immense. Continental Resources President and CEO Doug Lawler recently told Hart Energy that “there’s a mile of stratigraphic column” of shales and sandstones to be developed across the basin.
But few operators are developing the Powder River Basin at scale like AEC. The company is adding about 65 new wells in the basin per year, said Bill Knox, AEC’s senior vice president of operations.
3-mile Powder laterals
AEC is advancing Powder development with its first 3-mile laterals in Johnson County, Wyoming.
The 3-well Grumpy Fed pad includes one well targeting the Niobrara Shale and two landing in the deeper Mowry Shale.
The pad is sited in the northern part of the Powder, which is less mature and densely developed than acreage to the south in Converse County. AEC acquired additional acreage in the northern Powder from Occidental last year.
Producers such as AEC, EOG, Continental and Occidental are pushing for scale and repeatability in the Niobrara and Mowry, which offer widespread targets across the basin.
The Niobrara is the Powder’s top drilling target and is generally encountered at a vertical depth of about 10,000 ft.
The Niobrara “has exhibited steady performance on a spacing-calibrated basis across extended cube developments,” said A.J. Phillips, AEC’s executive vice president and CFO.
For many producers, Mowry delineation is in earlier innings. The Mowry Shale can range from vertical depths of around 11,000 ft to more than 12,000 ft.
Operators are still working to unlock the recipe for success in the Mowry. In situ bentonites create an effective frac barrier within the rock and have challenged drilling plans in the past.
AEC and EOG are the two Wyoming operators drilling the Mowry at scale.
Select Mowry wells display the bench’s promising upside: AEC’s Flying V Fed #4677-24-14-1E MH came online on July 27, 2024, with a 10,000-ft lateral.
In a 24-hour IP test, the Mowry well produced 2,056 bbl of oil and about 1.5 MMcf of natural gas.
From July 2024 through April 2025, it has produced more than 279,000 bbl of crude—or about 1,000 bbl/d over the 279-day period.
That exceeds the performance of many top-tier operators in the Permian Basin, where average wells typically yield around 200,000 bbl of oil over their first 12 months of production, according to data from Novi Labs.
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Prolific sandstones
Overlying the Niobrara and Mowry benches are a slew of sandstones and semi-conventional benches, like the Turner, Shannon, Parkman, Sussex and Teapot zones.
But unlike the main shale plays, these targets aren’t as contiguous across the Powder. They come and go in strips, bands and pockets around the basin.
“They’re not as homogonous across a widespread area,” Phillips said. “It takes more of a technical deep dive to understand, ‘Do we have Parkman or Sussex exposure here?’”
When AEC drills the deeper shale formations first, it’s easier to come back to an existing pad to consider new wells in the shallower sandstones, he said.
Apart from the Niobrara and Mowry formations, AEC’s most active completion activity last year was in the Sussex bench, according to Wyoming state data.
Results have been compelling. AEC’s Lucy Fed # 3671-35-26-3 SXH (10,000-ft lateral) targeted the Sussex formation in Converse County, Wyoming, at a vertical depth of around 9,700 ft.
The Sussex well IP’d at 2,539 bbl/d of oil after coming online on June 19, 2024. Through April 2025, it has produced over 256,000 bbl.
Meanwhile, Occidental is reporting compelling results from the Turner bench from its Converse County acreage.
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