STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — On Tuesday night, Shell Oil’s Matt Holman shared in Hayden his company’s exploration plans for Northwest Colorado.
With the help of hors d’oeuvres, 11 employees and a large map of Routt and Moffat counties, Holman, Shell’s exploration project manager for the area, spent much of the evening telling more than 150 people at the Haven Community Center exactly how, when and where his company plans to drill this year for the sweet crude oil nestled in the Niobrara Shale formation.
“It’s really all about being transparent,” Holman said about his company’s open house while throngs of people spoke with his exploration team that included transportation, logistics, environmental and regulatory managers and landmen. “If I have business in front of the community, like at a county commissioners’ meeting, that’s a bad time to do community engagement like this because at that point, everything is formal. There’s a process, and we’re all bound to do what we’ve come there to do. But if I can talk to the landowners beforehand, and I can tell the commissioners that they support me, I become a good neighbor. That’s really what I want to be.”
After a quick kickoff speech, Holman unfolded a large map of Northwest Colorado onto a table, an action that prompted clusters of people to instantly come over and see where the oil company intends to drill 11 exploratory wells this year.
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