Alex Hargrave | Aug 22, 2025 Updated Aug 22, 2025

Buffalo Bulletin and Casper Star Tribune

Mineral extraction and exploration activity in Johnson County is ramping up as companies enjoy an alliance with the Trump administration.

Several factors combined have created conditions for exploration and production, including Wyoming’s always-friendly approach to energy, a favorable federal policy and regulatory outlook and abundant resources of oil and gas in the Powder River Basin.

“Johnson County is a good place to drill for oil and gas, because there’s a lot of proven reserves in Johnson County,” said Howard Cooper, president and CEO of Three Crown Petroleum.

Three Crown Petroleum, a private oil and gas company, is currently drilling a 2-mile horizontal well in the Niobrara formation in Johnson County and three additional wells in Campbell and Converse counties.

Part of the reason companies gravitate to Wyoming is because the permitting process is less burdensome than in other states.

Take the well that Cooper is drilling in Johnson County. He said that the state issued his company a permit in two weeks. Then, they built a pad in one week and are wrapping up the drilling process, which is roughly 14 days. With a pipeline already built and connected to the well, production will begin once the well is completed.

“You save significant amounts of money on permitting, so you can use that money for drilling,” he said. “Once you have your permits, you can move a rig on location in a couple weeks, versus, in Colorado, it will take you a year.”

As of Monday, 13 oil rigs are operating in Wyoming, eight of which are in the Powder River Basin, said Ryan McConnaughey, vice president and director of communications with the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, an industry trade group. That is roughly the same amount as this time last year, though it’s a far cry from pre-pandemic production levels, when the state had 33 rigs operating at one time, he said.

Still, rig counts don’t paint the full picture, as technological developments in the past few years mean fewer rigs are needed to produce the same amount of oil and gas.

Despite appearances, drilling and developing new resources is not a short-term decision, McConnaughey said.

“We always say it’s definitely both the market and the regulatory framework within which we’re operating,” he said. “It’s not easy just to flip a switch and turn on and off a producing well. Our members are definitely looking at the long-term outlook when they make a business decision on drilling a well.”

There’s a lot of factors in that long-term outlook, from global instability and what the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries does to influence the global market, to seasonal weather forecasts (hot summer or cold winter) in the case of natural gas, to the regulatory framework, McConnaughey said.

The Bureau of Land Management office manages 42.9 million acres, or 67% of federal mineral estate in Wyoming.

“We’re going to see more regular lease sales in the state of Wyoming. That’s huge for a federal lands state like Wyoming,” McConnaughey said. “These companies are trying to develop a drilling plan that allows them to schedule capital outlays, which includes bids on parcels of land and leases to drill. When that gets held up, it can put an entire project on hold.”

Cooper with Three Crown Petroleum concurred. His company doesn’t put much stock in short-term price trends. As of Monday, crude oil is $63 a barrel.

McConnaughey said that Wyoming producers also take a hit due to the cost of transporting oil to refineries.

“For Wyoming, that is probably right around that breakeven point or a little above,” he said. “Obviously, we would love for it to be a little bit higher than that. If you get too high, it also impacts costs for drilling as well – fuel is a big cost for operators.”

Feds bullish on fossil fuels

President Donald Trump signed two executive orders his first day in office, including one declaring a national energy emergency and another that directs agencies to review existing policies and actions that could hinder fossil fuel development.

With that directive, the BLM is in the process of approving another amendment to its Buffalo Field Office resource management plan that would open up the Powder River Basin to future coal leasing, reversing the moratorium implemented by the Biden administration.

State lawmakers unpacked how a change in presidential administration can impact agency actions and, in turn, land use, during a Select Federal Natural Resource Management committee meeting in Buffalo on Aug. 12.

Kris Kirby, acting director of BLM Wyoming, told the committee that the amendment to the local resource management plan is going through the National Environmental Policy Act process, which will be expedited and is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

In response to a question about how the current analysis of the field office’s resource management plan will produce different results than the one conducted under the Biden administration, Kirby said that, this time, the agency is guided by Trump’s and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s directives to maximize opportunities to increase energy production on federal lands.

The Biden administration’s BLM, in contrast, was directed to prioritize environmental justice and climate change in its decisionmaking.

For Cooper and Three Crown Petroleum, knowing a pro oil and gas administration is in the White House for the next four years helps dictate the company’s capital expenditures, as it will be easier to drill.

“Over the next four years, it will be much easier to work with the Bureau of Land Management, because the Secretary of Energy and Secretary of Interior are pro oil and gas,” Cooper said. “That’s going to help us as an independent oil and gas company when we’re applying for federal applications to drill.”

Under the Big Beautiful Bill, the Trump administration’s sweeping budget package, the federal mineral royalty rate on oil and gas production will be reduced from 16.67% to 12.5%, and fees paid by lessees to nominate land for leasing, called expressions of interest, are eliminated.

“Those lower prices account for the increased regulatory requirements and time frames that it takes to drill on federal lands,” McConnaughey said. “They get that rate, because it takes longer and is more arduous to drill on federal lands than it would be on private lands, which is often the case in Texas, Oklahoma or North Dakota or on state lands.”

McConnaughey noted that

U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, is also working on litigation reform, which could put a limit on how long after an action a plaintiff could file a lawsuit.

In July, the Petroleum Association of Wyoming celebrated the U.S. Court of Appeals D.C. Circuit’s rejection of attempts by environmental groups to block more than 4,000 permits for wells on federal lands in Wyoming and New Mexico. The court dismissed the case, citing lack of standing.

Despite the win in this case, McConnaughey said that litigation often bogs down even a legitimate project.

“We’re trying to figure out ways we can still secure people’s rights in court, but it can’t be used as a way to halt development on federal lands,” he said. “It’s putting a time frame on when you can sue after an action was taken so they can’t hold out forever and ever with pending litigation hanging over a project. It would go a long way in making sure these processes don’t get bogged.”