Denver Ranked As Third Top Oil and Gas City in the World

A derrick-man services an oil rig.
Photo Courtesy: NIOSH

Rigzone, a popular oil and gas industry news source, has created a list of the world’s top oil and gas cities and listed Denver third in the world. The top ten cities were chosen based on the city’s degree of importance for oil and gas development and the amount of career opportunities created within the area. Denver was the only U.S. city that made the top 10. (To read the article, click here.)

Oil and gas operations have grown in Colorado due to advanced oil and gas technology namely, hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. These technologies make unconventional resources, such as shale and tight sands economically viable. Colorado’s Niobrara Play is the most active in the west and contains approximately 2 billion barrels of recoverable oil reserves (says the Colorado Oil and Gas Association). Denver has a number of large oil and gas companies including Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Noble Energy Inc., and Halliburton, to name a few.

The expansion of oil and gas activities in Colorado has created a burgeoning job market. The Institute for 21st Century Energy reported that oil and gas activity in 2012 created 77,600 jobs in Colorado. It is expected that these numbers will grow to 121,398 in 2020 and 175,363 by 2035. The Rigzone ranking signals a promising prospect for students in Denver Law’s Environmental and Natural Resources Law and Policy Program. Students in the program are able to specialize their studies in oil and gas law and policy and will be able to fill these new job market demands.

Angelica Oman

Graduate Program Assistant