Midstream Accounting Case Study

W Energy Software’s Financial Accounting, Liquids Transportation, and Transaction Management Solution Helps H2O Midstream Sustain Growth Profile in the Permian Basin

About H2O MIDSTREAM

Headquartered in Houston, H2O Midstream is committed to providing the best in class water midstream services to its customers. It owns and operates one of the Permian’s only truck-free, third-party produced water hub and pipeline networks.

The W Energy Software Platform was very attractive to us in how the solution captured volume measurement and translated those measures into billing information for our customers; it was the most efficient product we saw of those we looked at. We now have the technology in place that will enable us to scale our business tenfold.

Chief Financial Officer,
H2O Midstream.

Products by W Energy Software

  • Full Midstream Accounting Suite (Financial Accounting, Fixed Assets, Purchasing)
  • Liquids Transportation

Areas of Operation

  • Permian/Midland Basin
  • Permian/Delaware Basin

Supported Workflows

  • Financial statements
  • Accounts Payable
  • Accounts Receivable
  • Authorization for Expenditure
  • Shipper nominations/confirmations
  • Lease and land management

Who Benefits?

  • Operational Accounting
  • Management

Inspiration for Change

ACCELERATING DEMAND FOR THIRD-PARTY WATER MANAGEMENT

Between 3 to 10 barrels of water are produced for every barrel of oil in the Permian Basin. Many operators are transitioning away from managing their own produced water to outsourcing or selling those systems to third-party service providers who offer economies of scale and cost-sharing among producers. Founded in 2015, H2O Midstream operates the largest integrated water midstream network in the Midland Basin, comprised of over 200 miles of pipeline, 1MM barrels or storage, and access to over 500K BPD of owned and third-party disposal capacity.

MAINTAINING BUSINESS AGILITY

Within a short time, frame H2O Midstream’s accounting requirements grew increasingly complex as its customer contracts expanded across the Permian. At the same time, the company had expanded its water management infrastructure through acquisition in the Midland Basin and formed ULWM, a joint venture in the Delaware Basin. As a result, H2O Midstream needed to track a growing number of meters and transactions spanning hundreds of miles of gathering and transportation pipelines.

SCALING TO MEET CUSTOMER NEEDS

With increasing volumes and an expanding customer base, H2O Midstream needed to scale its accounting operations beyond the capabilities of its existing financial software solutions, which included QuickBooks and a variety of Excel-based workflows. Critical to its business needs was the ability to accelerate monthly volume measurement and streamlining the customer invoicing process.

Additionally, as its capital programs expanded, H2O Midstream needed to improve its ability to better track and report project status and better manage its increasing number and scale of projects.

The single biggest factor that played into the selection process was to find an integrated solution that provided scalability as the Company grew.

Benefits of W Energy Software

POSITIONED FOR GROWTH

After evaluating multiple accounting solutions, H2O Midstream selected W Energy Software’s Liquids Transportation, and full Midstream Accounting suite, which consists of software modules for Financial Accounting (AP, AR, GL, financial statements), Fixed Assets, and Purchasing.

With demand for produced water management soaring in the Permian, H2O Midstream’s contracts have tripled in just a few years. W Energy Software is part of the service provider’s long-term strategy to scale up and manage operations as it experiences exponential market growth. H2O Midstream implemented W Energy Software solutions with EAG 1Source, a W Energy Software implementation partner.

MEETING CUSTOMER NEEDS HEAD ON

H2O Midstream reports that by deploying W Energy Software in support of its accounting operations it now has the technology and systems in place to sustain its aggressive growth profile and meet evolving customer needs. W Energy Software’s Liquids Transportation solution enables the service provider to track complex customer contracts (including rates and escalations), automatically aggregate and validate measurement data from 250 meters, and accurately record transactions across its extensive produced water pipeline systems in the Permian Basin. And equipped with W Energy Software’s Calculation Trace (CalcTrace) feature, accounting staff now have a powerful auditing capability to backtrace revenue through every preceding transaction and calculation.

POWERING BEST-IN-CLASS OPERATIONS

W Energy Software is enabling H2O Midstream to close its month faster than ever by cutting settlement time in half.

The preparation of financial statements, which previously required 3 days, is now performed in a couple of hours. W Energy Software provides centralized management of core financial data required to generate customer invoices, create purchase orders, and process accounts payable invoices. And because W Energy Software’s Financial Accounting and Liquids Transportation solutions are fully integrated on the cloud, H2O Midstream’s staff no longer have to wait until the books are closed to see financial results but can see results as soon as entries are posted with the ability to digitally attach supporting documents to journal entries. By accelerating accounting cycle times and automating manual processes, the service provider is empowering its workforce to spend more time on high-value tasks and analysis.