Back in 2020, Houston-based Piñon Midstream set out to cure a massive headache for producers in Perm Town’s most prolific eastern flank of the Delaware in N.M., and Texas—namely, the lack of infrastructure to gather and treat pervasive sour gas. Solving that problem would no doubt be a grand introduction into the nation’s hottest play. Solving another would be even grander. ...

Rusty Hutson isn’t your typical gas producer. As the founder and CEO of Ala.-based Diversified Energy, he walks his own path—even one he didn’t expect to find again....