Increasing amount of oil and gas producers in Northern Colorado are weighing up their prospects to move north of the border into Wyoming and North Dakota due to increasing public opposition to O&G operations. Thanks to rising oil prices, these prospects are looking increasingly likely.
Brad Holly, President and CEO of HighPoint Resources recently stated that they are contemplating exiting the D-J basin and focusing on the Bakken in North Dakota due to the backlash that fellow competitors Crestone Peak Resources and Extraction Oil & Gas faced when seeking to drill wells near Boulder and Broomfield counties.
Holly also cited Colorado’s increasingly restrictive regulatory environment as an additional issue for O&G producers and a reason for why they are taking an increasingly cautious strategy in Colorado. With undeveloped resources in Weld Country along the Wyoming border, HighPoint aims to also drill further locations away from Colorado.
With US oil production poised to beat record highs set in 1970, it was expected that Colorado’s reserves would play a large part. Instead, areas such as the Permian Basin and the Powder River Basin are receiving much more investment. Wyoming is also matching Colorado’s running drilling rigs as of April, with both states running 29 rigs according to information provided from Baker Hughes.
With further investment on the horizon, Colorado producers are gradually looking at the Powder River Basin as on equal footing with the Permian Basin in terms of potential, albeit a smaller version of the area located in southwest Texas and eastern New Mexico. It is also predicted by many Wyoming-based producers that the state is set to witness a fivefold increase in the amount of drilling permits issued over the next couple of years.
With increased production expected, IWS Energy are perfectly placed to assist the producers with their expanded water disposal needs, particularly in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. For further enquiries, please get in touch with us at info@iwsenergy.com.
(Sourced from the Denver Post)