But what if the boom doesn’t come back?
Some in the industry say that’s the unique situation facing Colorado’s Western Slope, a previous hot bed of drilling development that’s struggled in a prolonged price downturn. Drillers here have become a victim of their own successes.
Boom-bust cycles are such a part of the industry’s DNA that some guys can measure their career by them. Don Simpson, a senior vice president of Ursa Operating Company, is one of those longtime oil men. Sometimes a bust lasts just a year or sometimes “they last a lot longer,” he says.
Read the rest of the story on Colorado Public Radio website.