Gene Shepherd is packing a punch in the Permian’s southern Delaware hood, where drilling rigs and pumpjacks operated by neighbors like Diamondback Energy, Continental Resources, and XTO, mechanically hum their tunes in cadences that can either lullaby a producer to sleep or keep him mercilessly awake at night....

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. ...