As the end of the year fast approaches, companies across the energy biosphere, like Western Midstream, are turning to their quarterly reports to gauge their performance for the third quarter of 2025. The international energy market has been subjected to a troubling state of affairs this year, with market instability, inflation, increases in operational costs, and the war in Ukraine all playing a part in the midstream sector in 2025. Now, one of the United States’ largest midstream companies, Western Midstream, has reported record Q3 earnings and has plans to expand water-handling operations in the Delaware Basin.
Western Midstream has reported record earnings in Q3 of 2025
Western Midstream has become a cornerstone of the American energy sector, with operations in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. The company is an excellent barometer for the midstream sector in the United States and regularly reports progress on its vast array of projects spanning across the United States.
The company reports an astonishing performance in Q3, with operational costs and earnings reaching into the billions. The company has become an exemplar of how the midstream operations for an energy company should be performing. The remarkable performance in Q3 has mostly been attributed to several factors, which have led to numbers such as:
- Q3 Cash flows gained by operating activities totaled $570.2 million
- Third-quarter 2025 Free Cash Flow reached $397.4 million
- Capital expenditures totaled $156.7 million
The company also noted in its quarterly performance report that the third-quarter distribution sat at approximately $0.910 per unit, which is relatively consistent with the previous quarter’s report. Western Midstream’s production numbers remained relatively similar to Q2’s report, but earnings were catapulted through the roof due to lower operational costs, positioning the company for a consecutive strong performance expectation for Q4 2025.
“I am pleased to report another strong operational and financial quarter for WES as we generated our second consecutive quarter of record Adjusted EBITDA. Lower operational costs, inclusive of efficiency improvements and cost management efforts, drove a sequential-quarter increase in Adjusted EBITDA, even though volumes remained relatively in line with the second-quarter. These efficiency efforts have also enhanced productivity and cost competitiveness, positioning our partnership well as we advance Aris integration activities and continue to execute our near-term growth plans.” – Oscar Brown, President and Chief Executive Officer of Western Midstream
Water-produced management is key to the company’s ambitions for 2026
For any energy company, managing the treatment and disposal of water produced by operations is essential, and Western Midstream has become an exemplar of how to efficiently deal with water produced at its facilities in the United States. The Delaware Basin needs strategic water management as the operations on-site grow to astonishing proportions.
The company has noted that the strong performance builds on existing profits for investors and stakeholders. As the world reels from the impact of shutting the door on Russian energy supply, the reality of the energy market is becoming all too clear. Energy operators like Western Midstream are essential to the global energy market, especially as the cold winter rolls around and demand increases.
The global midstream sector is shifting to the US to compensate for the loss of Russian energy resources
With the war in Ukraine showing no signs of easing up, the West has imposed a raft of new sanctions on Russia and its litany of energy companies. With the US sanctions on Lukoil forcing the Russian major to divest foreign assets, and the EU preparing to eliminate all Russian LNG imports by 2027, the midstream sector is shifting towards the US. The United States is the largest producer of gas in the world, with companies like Western Midstream playing an integral role in the dominance of the US gas sector on the global energy market.
