Drilling For Oil

A petroleum company is drilling in El Paso County, hoping to find Texas tea in Colorado.

Ultra Petroleum Company has a permit to drill in four locations. They just completed the first exploratory drill near the intersection of Drennan and Curtis roads.

?They?re looking for oil,? said El Paso County Commissioner Dennis Hisey, who has been studying the idea of exploration for the past year.

?This is kind of an exciting development for El Paso County,? said Hisey. ?(It?s) exciting whether you want it, or you don’t want it, because these first few wells will probably tell us whether they’ll pack up and go home.?

If oil is found, it could mean the start of an oil industry in El Paso County.

The drillers went down deep into the earth, way past the water table.

?They?re going down several thousand feet,? said Hisey. ?I don’t know exactly how deep, but we’re expecting somewhere in the five-to 6,000-foot range. Maybe more.? Its? been awhile since there was any exploratory drilling in these parts.

?This is the first of the modern era,? said Hisey. ?It’s been probably 20 or 30 years since anybody was in here seriously,? said Hisey. ?They?ve never found anything they could commercially make work for them. However, with new technology, they can do that now.?

It will take some time before the public knows if drillers found any oil.

?I understand there?s about a six-month blackout period where they don?t have to release any information off this well,? said Hisey. ?Nothing becomes public until after six months. Our best indication whether they found anything or not is whether they apply for more permits beyond the four.?

The derrick set up near Drennan and Curtis is packing up and moving on to the next exploratory drilling site near Highway 94 and Baggett Road.