{"id":106947,"date":"2016-01-31T22:41:47","date_gmt":"2016-02-01T05:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/houston-energy-company-to-close-durango-office\/"},"modified":"2016-01-31T22:41:47","modified_gmt":"2016-02-01T05:41:47","slug":"houston-energy-company-to-close-durango-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/houston-energy-company-to-close-durango-office\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston energy company to close Durango office"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Gas
Gas field jobs were plentiful in La Plata County a few years ago, but a gas and oil industry slump has reversed that in the county and statewide. In 2015, Colorado lost an estimated 6,000 gas and oil jobs.<\/span>JERRY McBRIDE\/Durango Herald file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A layoff and reconfiguration is sweeping M3 Midstream, which after 11 years in operation is closing its Durango offices because of a crippling downturn in the oil and gas industry.<\/p>\n

M3 Midstream, which provides services to natural gas producers, announced last week plans to consolidate operations to the company\u2019s headquarters in Houston.<\/p>\n

As a result, about one-third of the 49 people employed at the Durango office (also known as Momentum Energy) at 1099 Main Ave. will relocate to Houston, one-third will continue their duties through the end of May to assist with the transition, and one-third have been terminated, company officials confirmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Durango office is staffed with a close-knit team of talented and hardworking individuals,\u201d said Laranne Breagy, senior vice president and general counsel for M3, in a prepared statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cDecisions such as this are among the most difficult any company must make. Yet we are facing the reality of a long-term retrenchment in our industry from which we are not insulated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Breagy said the company is using \u201call available measures to smooth the transition for affected employees.\u201d<\/p>\n

The oil and gas industry has been hit hard in recent months by falling prices.<\/p>\n

In December, an annual study conducted by the University of Colorado Boulder Leeds School of Business that includes statewide forecasts and trends for 13 business sectors, said the industry slump means a lot of uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Last year, Colorado lost an estimated 6,000 jobs in the industry, and the severance taxes that many local governments rely on are down as well.<\/p>\n

The price of oil dropped below $50 per barrel, the study said, and there was a \u201cremarkable drop\u201d of around 50 percent in oil prices in 2015 compared with 2014. The state is looking at a 35 percent decline in gross value over 2014, which also impacts revenue for local governments.<\/p>\n

Specifically for natural gas \u2013 a key economic driver for La Plata County \u2013 it is estimated that Colorado will see the value fall more than 35 percent from 2014, the study said.<\/p>\n

jpace@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

employees laid off, others to transfer to Texas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":106948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5742,5735],"tags":[11,1606,13,221,4549],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-106947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","tag-economy-general","tag-employer","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-gas-and-oil","tag-unemployment"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106947"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=106947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}