Record levels of oil production in Colorado are being driven by a steady rise in oil prices.
As Colorado Public Radio reports, oil prices rose from a low of $43 a barrel in June to just over $60 a barrel for much of January and February and the uptick in prices has prompted an uptick in oil production.
According to the Energy Information Administration, drillers in the Niobrara region in Weld County – where there are over 23,000 active oil and gas wells - are expected to produce an estimated 579,000 barrels of oil per day in March.
But the number of wells actively working in Colorado has only gone up to 32 rigs at last count, according to Baker Hughes, the same number of active wells for much of the recent upswing in production = something that Bernadette Johnson of Market Intelligence at DrillingInfo said is possible because “operators can now do more with less” because of how much more quickly wells can be drilled, and how big those wells are.
