Last Wednesday we published the Eagle Ford count, the fastest-growing basin on the board. This week: the oldest iron on it. The Mid-Continent spans three plays in one book, the Anadarko, the Texas Panhandle, and the Arkoma, and it runs on the deepest legacy layer we have measured: Waukesha frames and Cooper-Bessemer machines that were compressing gas before the shale era, rebuilt rather than replaced.
This is Iron Count No. 03, a four-page brief of what six and a half years of the record holds for the Mid-Continent. All of it is free: the setting pace with per-state coverage dates printed honestly, the 2025 setters ranked, the engine families and the build-vintage story, the ownership league with corporate parentage verified against filings, and the rental layer the record cannot see, bounded from the vendors’ own disclosures.
Steady setting across three plays. Read the bars with their coverage dates.
Where the iron sits: the Anadarko carries 63 percent of the horsepower, and Arkansas is substantially one company’s story. Who set it in 2025: Energy Transfer leads, seven of the nine biggest books are gatherers and processors, and FourPoint is the E&P standout in the Panhandle.
Basin Activity
What drives the basin: the count’s deepest legacy layer, still running. Waukesha plus legacy big-bore iron is 29 percent of basin horsepower, 90 of the 124 dated engines predate 2010, and Flywheel’s 44 big-bore Cats make it the third E&P big-bore owner in this series, after EOG and EQT.
The Iron
Want to understand why Flywheel’s financial structure is likely to keep their M&A activity humming? Check out my podcast below:
The Counterparties
