A record 276 permits for horizontal oil and gas drilling — a technique that has opened new reserves in Texas, Louisiana and the Northeast — have been issued in Colorado in 2010, according to the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
In the past three years, a total of 439 horizontal-drilling permits have been issued, data released Monday at a commission meeting show.
“Nationally, about 60 percent of the rigs active at this time are drilling horizontal wells,” said David Neslin, commission executive director. “Colorado is still in the exploratory phase, but this is an exciting opportunity.”
The technique drills a deep vertical well and then moves the drill bit so that it moves horizontally, creating a shaft that is parallel to the surface.
“The footprint is much smaller,” said Doug Flanders, director of policy for the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, a trade group.
“The disturbed space is minimized, which helps from a reserve perspective, an environmental perspective and a community perspective,” Flanders said. “You get to some resources you never thought you’d be able to get to.”
In Weld County, where operations received 62 percent of this year’s permits, wells are drilled to depths of around 6,750 feet and then drilled horizontally for up to a mile, according to commission data.
“There has been a lot of activity lately, and it has been spread across the state,” said Jim Milen, geographic information systems manager for the commission.
Horizontal wells were permitted in 2010 in 15 counties.
Still the majority of the permits are focused on geological formations found in Weld, La Plata and Archuleta counties.
Exploratory wells in Niobrara Shale, which runs along the Colorado-Wyoming border, have shown it may be a rich oil field.
Horizontal-drilling permits for the Niobrara have been issued in 10 other counties, including Jackson, Mesa and Routt.
The Fruitland Coal is a coal seam in southwestern Colorado from which coal-bed methane gas is extracted. The traditional way of developing the reserve is through a series of vertical wells, but if the seam can be mapped and a horizontal well drilled through it, far fewer wells would be needed, Milen said.
Mark Jaffe: 303-954-1912 or mjaffe@denverpost.com
