Front Range sitting on a billion barrels of oil. (Pueblo: living in, costs)

[lalahartma]

It is scary.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

The Wattenberg Field has been a known source of oil for many, many years. There are already hundreds of pumpers scattered around Weld County. There are dozens and dozens of subdivisions which are built around oil pumpers.

[Mike from back east]

So, what does all the new well activity mean for Colorado?

- Increased receipts from the Severance Tax. Should we raise it to have parity with the WY severance tax? I say yes.

- Increased business activity in the region, especially in supporting areas of food, clothing, housing, and related living expenses.

- Jobs. It remains to be seen if locals grow into those jobs or the workers come in from out of state.

- Heavy truck traffic will increase, but it may not be all that much, time will tell. This could increase highway maintenance costs.

What did I overlook?

[wong21fr]

^Likely incentive for both oil/natural gas operators, and service companies (i.e. engineering services) to shift additional operations to the state. These guys would more than likely set up shop in the Denver Metro Area and would provide a good boon to the professional sector.

Denver is also close to fields in Wyoming and the Dakotas and with the attractiveness of the area, and good transportation connections, this could be a redux of the early 1980's oil and gas boom for Denver. Hopefully, minus the bust.

Hell, maybe we'll get a few new towers DT.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by wong21fr

^Likely incentive for both oil/natural gas operators, and service companies (i.e. engineering services) to shift additional operations to the state. These guys would more than likely set up shop in the Denver Metro Area and would provide a good boon to the professional sector.

Denver is also close to fields in Wyoming and the Dakotas and with the attractiveness of the area, and good transportation connections, this could be a redux of the early 1980's oil and gas boom for Denver. Hopefully, minus the bust.

Hell, maybe we'll get a few new towers DT.

Agree. Seen a number of people starting threads on here in the last few months about coming to various cities for oil-related jobs.

Might even be something in it for the COLO School of Mines in Golden.

Hopefully it's a big win-win for all of the region and the oil firms, several of which I own tiny amounts of their stock.

I just hope they don't leave behind a huge environmental mess.

[Mike from back east]

It wouldn't hurt if we had a GOOD thread on solar in Colorado, where I could maybe move some of these posts, or older posts as well, as we always seem to head down this path when the topic of oil comes up.

Now, back to OIL in Colorado.

In addition to the oil on the east slope, there's all that shale oil on the west slope, but it needs a lot of water to process, which we do not really have. Jazzlover has written a number of posts on that old story of west slope boom and bust, mostly bust.

I'm looking forward to increased business activity for the front range, something to energize the state economy.

[proveick]

I'd like to see Denver turn into another Calgary. Unemployment rate in Alberta is only 5.1%. RP

[Josseppie]

If there is oil fields in northern Colorado what are the chances that the oil fields in El Paso county are much larger then they anticipate? Maybe this state has a lot more oil then anyone realizes.

[suzco]

Originally Posted by proveick

I hope the state develops this significant find. Would be GREAT for our economy.

RP

What am I missing here - as far as I know, this is not a new discovery.

See, for example, this 1999 article, that talks about the activity that started in 1970.

WATTENBERG FIELD, DENVER BASIN, COLORADO

INTRODUCTION
. . .
The most important mineral activity in Colorado during the past decade has been the discovery and development of petroleum fields over an area of 1 million acres in the deeper portion of the Denver basin . . .The activity first started in 1970 in the Wattenberg gas field with drilling to the J (Muddy) Sandstone at depths of 7,600 to 8,400 ft (2,300 to 2,500 m). . .
In 1981 and 1982, more than 100 petroleum discoveries were made in the Codell Sandstone within the producing areas of the Wattenberg field and also along the north and west margins . . . In early development at Wattenberg, the Codell was overlooked as a reservoir and bypassed in drilling and completion . . ..

[wanneroo]

We have an oil thread and the Solar Swingers turn up as they always do. Solar might work in some applications but it has a long way from the big time in terms of being reliable and cost effective. People say in some year soon that it will be so cheap and easy, well CHECK BACK WHEN THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS.

Colorado has a wealth of oil and I say Drill Here, Drill Now. I'd rather pay for Colorado oil products than send the money to a thugocracy like iran or venezuela.

There is still tons of shale oil out on the western slope and who knows how many more undiscovered or untapped fields there are out there.