Reported by Staff

Key for Colorado’s oil and gas industry as it emerges from the recession this year, is “a welcoming social and economic environment,” according to Tisha Conoly Schuller, the new president of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association.

She noted that the state’s natural gas sector shows signs of rebounding, even though the number od drilling permits dropped last year after the record 8,027 in 2009. Still Colorado leads neighboring energy-producing states in the permit count.

COGA’s newly minted president said the Rockies Express pipeline, which runs from Wyoming to Ohio, has helped close the gap between the price NG producers get for gas in the Rockies and other regions of the country. In addition, the new Ruby pipeline, which goes from the Rockies out to the West Coast, will provide an additional boost, Schuller told the AP in an interview last week.

The new pipelines will improve capacity in the region, which has been held down in recent years because of a dearth of pipelines. But COGA’s new president said that Colorado’s gas production hasn’t recovered as rapidly as other parts of the country, such as the massive gas shale fields in the East, like  the “super giant” Marcellus Shale field. “The shale plays are a target for investment,” Schuller told the AP. “In the next couple years, we don’t expect to see a boom in Colorado like we saw in 2008.”

That’s why regulatory certainty and “a welcoming social and economic environment” are important to keeping Colorado’s industry on track, she pointed out.

Many industry officials continue to blame the state’s new oil and gas regulations for hindering energy development, while supporters of the new drilling rules say the severe recession, record low NG prices and huge inventory of gas are the real reasons for the industry downturn.

Schuller didn’t make an issue of the new regulations and, in fact, said her organization would be helping the industry to implement the new procedures effectively, and to develop a good working relationship with the state.

She also emphasized the need for a thriving gas industry in Colorado ,and that all citizens have a stake in seeing it grow becaue it contributes so much in taxes, which benefit everyone. “There’s not a person in this state that these revenues don’t touch,” she said.