Pipeline and oil and gas processing plant operator Western Midstream Partners (WES), through one of its operating subsidiaries, has agreed to acquire privately held midstream company Meritage Midstream Services II in a deal worth $885m.

Meritage owns and operates a natural gas gathering and processing business in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming, US. These assets are located in Converse, Campbell and Johnson counties.

Its assets include around 1,500 miles of high and low-pressure natural gas-gathering pipelines, with approximately 380 million cubic feet per day (mcfd) of natural gas processing capacity, and the Thunder Creek natural gas liquid (NGL) pipeline.

It also owns a 38,000-barrels-of-oil-equivalent-per-day FERC-regulated NGL pipeline, which connects to Meritage’s processing facilities.

WES expects the acquisition to significantly expand its existing asset base in the Powder River Basin and increase its total natural gas processing capacity to 440mcfd.

WES president and CEO Michael Ure said: “The addition of the Meritage assets meaningfully expands the financial and operational scale of our existing Powder River Basin footprint by adding significant producer inventory and further diversifying our growing G&P customer portfolio.

“The Powder River Basin has attracted investment from some of the largest E&P companies due to the basin’s multi-stacked pay horizon potential.”

Subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, the transaction is planned for completion in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Meritage CEO Nick Thomas said: “Since 2013, Meritage has been hard at work building upon its brand as a leading midstream operator in the Powder River Basin, expanding its services into rich gas gathering, processing and NGL transport.”

Western Midstream said the Meritage assets are backed by more than 1.4 million dedicated acres from investment-grade counterparties.