Colorado county issuing gas, oil drilling permits at record pace

Houston (Platts)--2Jun2004

High natural gas prices and improved finding and drilling technologies are
combining to create a boom in drilling permit applications in Garfield County,
Colorado, and across the state as a whole. 

Brian Macke, deputy director of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation
Commission, on Tuesday said Garfield County, located in the gas-rich Piceance
Basin in the west-central region of the state, is on track to exceed the
record 567 drilling permits issued last year.

As of May 26, the state already had issued 312 permits. On a statewide basis,
Macke predicted that Colorado was on track to award around 2,700 drilling
permits, which would surpass the record 2,378 permits issued "back in the boom
days" of 1981. Most of the permits are for gas-oriented projects, Macke said
in an interview with Platts. "There is some oil development and exploration
going on, but the majority of the wells being permitted are natural gas wells.
About 83% of the production value in the state is from natural gas," he said.

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