Petroleum Association of Wyoming Celebrates Golden Anniversary in 2024

This year marks the Petroleum Association of Wyoming’s (PAW) 50th year as the voice of Wyoming’s oil and natural gas industry and more than 100 years of industry advocacy as its predecessor organization, the Rocky Mountain Oil and Gas Association (RMOGA).

RMOGA was established in Casper in 1921 under the leadership of former Wyoming Governor B.B. Brooks. From the 1940s to the 1960s, RMOGA expanded from a Wyoming-based oil trade association into a regional association with division offices in Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Idaho, Utah, Colorado and Nebraska. Eventually, division offices evolved into their own state associations to better represent their members and focus on state level issues while cooperating on federal policies.

In January of 1974, “oil leaders throughout Wyoming, in a Casper meeting, organized the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, blending the two present oil industry trade organizations into one.” The Wyoming Oil Industry Committee (WOIC) and the Wyoming Division of RMOGA “joined in an effort to establish a more effective vehicle to speak for the industry in Wyoming,” according to a press release issued at the time.

Today, PAW members range from 26 of the State’s top 30 producers to many small mom and pop operations, accounting for more than 90% of Wyoming’s oil and natural gas production.