Williams Cos. plans to boost drilling locations in the Piceance Basin by more than 50 percent over the next several years, a move that could bring 300 to 400 jobs to Garfield County, the Tulsa, Okla.-based energy company announced Thursday.
A new generation of drilling rigs from Helmerich & Payne will allow the company to drill up to 22 wells from a surface pad one-half the size of traditional sites.
Williams last March said it had ordered 10 of the rigs, which are to arrive one a month starting in November.
“It is a brand new rig designed specifically for the Piceance Basin to have less environmental and surface impact,” said Kelly Swan, a spokesman for Williams.
The company, which had previously estimated it would drill 3,000 locations, now projects it will have 4,600 locations.
The new rigs allow the company to drill more “downhole” locations using fewer surface sites, Swan said.
Oil and gas drilling permits are expected to rise 50 percent in Garfield County this year over last with no slowdown in sight, said Doug Dennison, the county’s oil and gas liaison.
“The boom is definitely happening,” he said. “I thought it happened two years ago.”
Williams operates in more sparsely populated parts of the basin and has had fewer conflicts with landowners than other producers, he said.
Pete Kolbenschlag, Western Slope field director with the Colorado Environmental Coalition, said he is encouraged to see producers drilling multiple wells from one location.
But he also wants to know where Williams is drilling and how far apart it plans to space its wells.
Wells in the basin are currently spaced so closely that they are damaging wildlife habitat, he said.
“We don’t want to see new development in areas that remain in a pristine or undeveloped state,” he said.
Williams currently employs about 100 people in the Piceance Basin, and related contractors employ 650 people, Swan said.
The company currently has 15 rigs and plans to drill 300 wells this year, 450 next year and 500 in 2007.
Staff writer Aldo Svaldi can be reached at 303-820-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com.
