Western Midstream to bulk up in Permian’s Delaware sub-basin with Brazos acquisition

Western Midstream Partners announced this week that it had agreed to acquire privately held Brazos Midstream’s assets in the Permian Basin’s Delaware sub-basin. Under the deal, Western will acquire all of the outstanding equity interests of Brazos Delaware II for around $1.6bn. The company will pay roughly $800mn in cash and issue another $800mn worth of common units.

In its announcement, Western said Brazos was one of the largest privately held gathering and processing platforms in Texas’ portion of the Delaware Basin. Brazos’ assets include infrastructure for the gathering and processing of both oil and gas and span Texas’ Reeves, Ward, Pecos, Winkler, Culberson, and Loving counties.

Brazos’ assets include roughly 900 miles (1,448 km) of pipeline, 460mn cubic feet (13mn cubic metres) per day of gas-processing capacity at the Comanche processing complex and around 470,000 dedicated acres (1,902 square km) under long-term, fixed-fee contracts with a weighted average remaining contract life of over nine years, according to Western’s announcement. Brazos processed an average of 336 mmcf (9.5 mcm) per day of gas and 25,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude over the whole of 2025, Western continued. It added that Brazos’ business was supported by a “diversified portfolio of investment grade and private-equity backed Permian Basin-focused producers”. Nearly all drilling locations on acreage dedicated to Brazos are within 2 miles (3.2 km) of the low-pressure infrastructure, Western said, adding that this limited future growth capital needs and increased free cash flow (FCF) generation.

Western’s president and CEO, Oscar Brown, described Brazos as a “highly complementary and strategically compelling bolt-on addition” to his company’s existing Delaware Basin platform.

"The Brazos acquisition is in line with [Western’s] M&A philosophy of making accretive, strategic acquisitions that enhance the value of [Western’s] existing asset base, provide a diverse set of high-quality customers, and generate strong free cash flow, all while protecting our investment grade credit ratings,” he continued. “More than 60% of [Western’s] 2026 adjusted EBITDA is expected to be generated from the Delaware Basin, and that proportion will only grow as the Brazos transaction is closed and integrated, and our organic growth projects, including the Pathfinder Pipeline and North Loving II, come online in the first and second quarters of 2027 respectively.”

The deal comes after Western completed its acquisition of Aris Water Solutions in late 2025. Brown noted that following the integration of those assets, the combination of the Brazos and Western systems would create an “even more integrated Delaware Basin network that is better positioned to compete for new business, provide enhanced flow assurance for our customers and deliver incremental operational efficiencies across a broader footprint”.