Bear River Midstream LLC has appointed Gary Venz as chief commercial officer (CCO) and Gary Largesse as chief operating officer (COO), expanding its leadership team as the company grows its natural gas storage business.

Venz brings more than 25 years of natural gas industry experience in regulated and unregulated markets. He joins from Williams, where he spent about 20 years in commercial operations, commercial development, and business development roles across the western US. As CCO, he will lead marketing and commercial strategy, customer development, and regulatory engagement.

Largesse, appointed COO, will oversee operations at Bear River Midstream's natural gas storage sites in Wyoming and Oklahoma. He has more than 20 years of energy infrastructure project experience and has worked with Bear River Midstream over the past 5 years on expansion of its Wyoming storage site.

Bear River Midstream owns the Stallion gas storage installation in Wyoming, with certificated working gas capacity of up to 55 bcf and connections to five interstate pipelines, and the Salt Plains gas storage site in Oklahoma, with 17 bcf of working gas capacity.

The company launched as an independent midstream energy company earlier this year.