Wyoming’s slice of the Powder River Basin is flirting again with an oil and gas boom. In related news, Converse County’s piggy bank is quickly turning into a fat cat. With 2022 production estimates from the Big Muddy oil field expected to top $3.4 billion—an increase of 64% over 2021—Converse projects collecting a whopping 212% of its annual budget this year.

Reese Energy Consulting today is following the latest wellspring of activity and investment hard at work here by the likes of Occidental and Devon. You might recall REC in 2021 dubbed those two, along with EOG, Northwoods Energy, and Chesapeake (at the time), the Magnificent Five for their proposed Wyoming Converse Oil and Gas Project that would develop 5,000 new oil and gas wells. Like other bold industry initiatives, the BLM-approved project has its enviro-group detractors but there’s no sign the project is off the burner.

Drilling permits are also on the rise in Converse with Anschutz Exploration, Anadarko, Continental, and numerous others tossing their names in the ring as recently as this month. Okla. City’s Continental entered the Powder River and Converse two years ago in January when it acquired Samson Resources for $215 million. The deal included 130,000 net acres, as many as 600 potential well locations, and 9 MBOED in production.