Advancing its Permian interests in the scarce and critical West Texas element of water, Western Midstream Partners announced its $1.5 billion cash and stock acquisition of Aris Water Solutions.
Under terms of the transaction, Aris shareholders would receive 0.625 common units of Western Midstream for each of their shares or up to $25.00 per share as a cash option that would involve up to $415 million in cash. After closing, Aris shareholders are expected to own about seven percent of Western Midstream.
Though headquartered in Houston, Aris owns and operates the largest energy-oriented water pipeline and recycling operation in the Permian area with more than 790 miles of produced water pipeline spread across the Delaware and Midland Basins of the Permian in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico. Aris can handle up to 1,800 MBbls per day of produced-water complementing Western Midstream’s 830-mile produced-water system and disposal capacity of 2,035 MBbls per day.
According to the announcement the agreement extends Western’s footprint into New Mexico’s Lea and Eddy Counties with its recent acquisition of the McNeill Ranch providing new sources of water for potential growth. Aris purchased the 45,000-acre McNeill Ranch property in November 2024.
Bobby Hunt is chief legal officer of Aris. Chistopher Dial is general counsel of Western Midstream. Both are located in Houston.
Vinson & Elkins advised Western Midstream, while Gibson Dunn & Crutcher counseled Aris and Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell advised the Aris Audit Committee.
BofA Securities is serving as financial advisors to Western Midstream and Houlihan & Lokey is advising Aris.
The Vinson & Elkins team was led by partners Lande Spottswood in Houston and Alex Robertson in Dallas associates Leah Powers (Dallas) Nick Priebe, Maggie Sternberg, Joshua Payne, and Will Sladic. Other key team members included partner Jackson O’Maley, counsel Alex Lewis, senior associate John Sager, and associate Taylor Santori; partners Ryan Carney, Lina Dimachkieh, and Gary Huffman, counsel Curt Wimberly and associates Maddie Brown and James Sutherland; counsel Megan Menniti and associates Jake Silver, Caroline Oakley, and Mary Smith; partner David D’Alessandro, counsels Melissa Spohn and Regina Ibarra and associate Reagan McGinnis; partners Hill Wellford and Evan Miller; partners Jeff Crough, senior associate Mitchell Austin, and associate Avery Westerlund; partner Jennifer Cornejo and associates Alexis Boyd and Alyssa Sieja; partner Sean Becker, senior associate Peter Goetschel, and associate Julia Burns; partner Mark Holmes; partner Winston Skinner and associate Carrigan English; partner Sarah Mitchell; and counsel Shaun Rogers.
Gibson Dunn advised Aris with a team led from Houston by partners Hillary Holmes and Tull Florey with associates Jonathan Sapp, Adri Langemeier, Mariana Lozano and Muriel Hague. Senior counsel Gregory Nelson and associate Nathan Sauers advised on taxes; partner Sean Feller and associate John Curran on benefits; partner Sophia Hansell and associate Alexander Merritt on antitrust; partner Adam Whitehouse on oil and gas; counsel Robbie Hopkins and associates Malakeh Hijazi and Allan Jeanjaquet on securities.