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Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The 1,800 attendees at the Rocky Mountain Energy Summit here breathed a collective sigh of relief earlier this week after Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper brokered a deal that would keep four controversial initiatives on hydraulic fracturing off the state ballot this November.
Hickenlooper on Monday announced he would convene a commission to advise the state legislature on how to respond to the public's growing concerns about Oil & Gas development in the Centennial State. In return, the backers of two measures that would limit hydraulic fracturing agreed to withdraw their measures. Two industry-supported ballot initiatives designed to preserve hydraulic fracturing in Colorado also were pulled.
Hickenlooper announced the breakthrough in a mid-day press conference August 4, the day signatures to get the initiatives on the November ballot were due at the Colorado Secretary of State's office.
Attendees at the Rocky Mountain Energy Summit told Industrial Info the move by Hickenlooper lifted a cloud from the fast-growing Oil & Gas Industry in Colorado. Indeed, shortly after the governor's press conference, stock prices rose for several oil & gas companies operating in the Denver-Julesburg (D-J) Basin, located about 50 miles north of Denver.
"This is a victory for bipartisan common sense and common ground," said Tisha Schuller, president and chief executive of the Colorado Oil & Gas Association (COGA), in a statement after the four ballot measures were scrapped. The two anti-fracking initiatives "could have put Colorado's economic future at risk," she added. COGA is the sponsor of the Rocky Mountain summit, the group's 26th annual meeting. There were 1,800 attendees this year, which is about the same number as previous years, but exhibitors increased by between five and 10, to about 94, a COGA staffer said.
Hickenlooper's deal, which followed his earlier unsuccessful attempt to find a legislative fix to keep the controversial initiatives off the ballot, also was hailed by numerous speakers, attendees and exhibitors here.
"The ballot initiatives were a cloud over the industry," another COGA official told Industrial Info. "Going forward, the industry plans to ramp up our outreach to Coloradans. They need to know this practice is safe and does not hurt the environment."
The Oil & Gas Industry is doing a brisk business in Colorado. Insight Environmental (Superior, Wisconsin), an environmental consulting firm specializing in methane leak detection and repair, expects to grow as Colorado and Ohio implement leak detection rules for the Oil & Gas Industry. Todd Morrison, Insight's chief executive, said similar leak-detection rules are on the way in Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Another exhibitor, Pioneer Energy (Lakewood, Colorado), is marketing technology that allows operators of remote wells to reduce natural gas flaring, boost profits and lower operating costs. Pioneer's Mobile Alkane Gas Separator (MAGS) strips out natural gas liquids (NGLs) from "wet" natural gas streams and remote wells that are not connected to processing plants. The NGLs are captured, rather than being flared, and the resulting dry gas can be burned to generate electricity, either for use onsite or sale to the grid.
A Pioneer representative said the company's system could reduce operators' reliance on diesel-generated electricity, saving them thousands of dollars per month. The company, looking for its first client in the D-J Basin, said its technology also would help operators in North Dakota comply with tightening regulations on flaring. North Dakota operators flare about 30% of the gas they produce, far more than is flared in other states. New regulations limiting flaring in North Dakota take effect later this year.
A representative from URS Corporation (NYSE:URS) (San Francisco, California), a leading engineering and construction firm, said his company was approaching "blow the doors off" growth in the D-J Basin. Demand is particularly brisk for the firm's air-quality and water-quality expertise. The biggest challenge? "Keeping staff with air-quality or midstream engineering experience." Many staffers have been hired by the company's clients, the URS official said.
WILLBROS Engineers LLC (Englewood, Colorado) also had a booth at the COGA event. A staffer there said work in the D-J Basin was "steady, and so far had avoided the extreme ups and downs of work in other shale formations, like the Eagle Ford and the Bakken." One client recently compressed its 10-year capital program into five years, with no reduction in spend. But serving that demand may be difficult unless the firm can attract and retain more engineers and designers.
Other exhibitors here, including Wood Group PSN (Houston, Texas) and Select Energy Services LLC (Houston), also rued the state's tight labor market for those with experience in the Oil & Gas Industry.
"Our biggest challenge is getting skilled labor and people with commercial driver's licenses," a Select representative said in a booth-side interview. "We conduct a seven-year background check, and we don't hire anyone who's been convicted of a felony, driving under the influence and even some misdemeanors." That screening eliminates about 50% of the job applicants at Select.
Colorado's legalization of marijuana, effective this year, creates some unique challenges for an industry already pressed to fill open jobs. Random drug tests are designed to catch people with illegal substances in their system, but what are oil & gas companies to do when a test detects traces of a legal substance in a worker's system? "We'll have to see how the courts sort that out," one exhibitor said. "But for our company, the choice is easy: You can work for us, or you can smoke pot, but you can't do both."
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, three offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.
Hickenlooper on Monday announced he would convene a commission to advise the state legislature on how to respond to the public's growing concerns about Oil & Gas development in the Centennial State. In return, the backers of two measures that would limit hydraulic fracturing agreed to withdraw their measures. Two industry-supported ballot initiatives designed to preserve hydraulic fracturing in Colorado also were pulled.
Hickenlooper announced the breakthrough in a mid-day press conference August 4, the day signatures to get the initiatives on the November ballot were due at the Colorado Secretary of State's office.
Attendees at the Rocky Mountain Energy Summit told Industrial Info the move by Hickenlooper lifted a cloud from the fast-growing Oil & Gas Industry in Colorado. Indeed, shortly after the governor's press conference, stock prices rose for several oil & gas companies operating in the Denver-Julesburg (D-J) Basin, located about 50 miles north of Denver.
"This is a victory for bipartisan common sense and common ground," said Tisha Schuller, president and chief executive of the Colorado Oil & Gas Association (COGA), in a statement after the four ballot measures were scrapped. The two anti-fracking initiatives "could have put Colorado's economic future at risk," she added. COGA is the sponsor of the Rocky Mountain summit, the group's 26th annual meeting. There were 1,800 attendees this year, which is about the same number as previous years, but exhibitors increased by between five and 10, to about 94, a COGA staffer said.
Hickenlooper's deal, which followed his earlier unsuccessful attempt to find a legislative fix to keep the controversial initiatives off the ballot, also was hailed by numerous speakers, attendees and exhibitors here.
"The ballot initiatives were a cloud over the industry," another COGA official told Industrial Info. "Going forward, the industry plans to ramp up our outreach to Coloradans. They need to know this practice is safe and does not hurt the environment."
The Oil & Gas Industry is doing a brisk business in Colorado. Insight Environmental (Superior, Wisconsin), an environmental consulting firm specializing in methane leak detection and repair, expects to grow as Colorado and Ohio implement leak detection rules for the Oil & Gas Industry. Todd Morrison, Insight's chief executive, said similar leak-detection rules are on the way in Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Another exhibitor, Pioneer Energy (Lakewood, Colorado), is marketing technology that allows operators of remote wells to reduce natural gas flaring, boost profits and lower operating costs. Pioneer's Mobile Alkane Gas Separator (MAGS) strips out natural gas liquids (NGLs) from "wet" natural gas streams and remote wells that are not connected to processing plants. The NGLs are captured, rather than being flared, and the resulting dry gas can be burned to generate electricity, either for use onsite or sale to the grid.
A Pioneer representative said the company's system could reduce operators' reliance on diesel-generated electricity, saving them thousands of dollars per month. The company, looking for its first client in the D-J Basin, said its technology also would help operators in North Dakota comply with tightening regulations on flaring. North Dakota operators flare about 30% of the gas they produce, far more than is flared in other states. New regulations limiting flaring in North Dakota take effect later this year.
A representative from URS Corporation (NYSE:URS) (San Francisco, California), a leading engineering and construction firm, said his company was approaching "blow the doors off" growth in the D-J Basin. Demand is particularly brisk for the firm's air-quality and water-quality expertise. The biggest challenge? "Keeping staff with air-quality or midstream engineering experience." Many staffers have been hired by the company's clients, the URS official said.
WILLBROS Engineers LLC (Englewood, Colorado) also had a booth at the COGA event. A staffer there said work in the D-J Basin was "steady, and so far had avoided the extreme ups and downs of work in other shale formations, like the Eagle Ford and the Bakken." One client recently compressed its 10-year capital program into five years, with no reduction in spend. But serving that demand may be difficult unless the firm can attract and retain more engineers and designers.
Other exhibitors here, including Wood Group PSN (Houston, Texas) and Select Energy Services LLC (Houston), also rued the state's tight labor market for those with experience in the Oil & Gas Industry.
"Our biggest challenge is getting skilled labor and people with commercial driver's licenses," a Select representative said in a booth-side interview. "We conduct a seven-year background check, and we don't hire anyone who's been convicted of a felony, driving under the influence and even some misdemeanors." That screening eliminates about 50% of the job applicants at Select.
Colorado's legalization of marijuana, effective this year, creates some unique challenges for an industry already pressed to fill open jobs. Random drug tests are designed to catch people with illegal substances in their system, but what are oil & gas companies to do when a test detects traces of a legal substance in a worker's system? "We'll have to see how the courts sort that out," one exhibitor said. "But for our company, the choice is easy: You can work for us, or you can smoke pot, but you can't do both."
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, three offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.
