Natural Resources Fuel Wyoming Surge

Drilling rigs are popping up all over the Red Desert. Once-vacant homes are filling and even waitress’ tips are getting fatter.

With the nation’s renewed demand for oil and natural gas, times are flush again in boom-and-bust Rock Springs.

“It’s nice to see your friends and relatives go back to work,” said Willie Styles, who has survived 28 years in the oil and natural gas industry. “I’m glad for those people. They’re part of the community, and people forget about them when the oil is down.”

After a decade of near-zero growth, Wyoming’s minerals-dependent economy has pushed the state job-growth rate past the nation’s for seven straight months.

Mineral tax revenue moved the state from a $127-million deficit in 1999 to a $695-million surplus in just two years. The number of gas wells has tripled in the past five years to 12,000.

New pipelines allow more gas to be shipped out, while technological advances have reduced costs and unlocked previously inaccessible deposits. The state extracted a record 1.455 trillion cubic feet of natural gas last year, fifth in the nation.

“That’s why everybody’s getting excited about Wyoming. They’re seeing these numbers,” said Don Likwartz, director of the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

Since the 1860s, natural resources have driven the economy of the state and of Rock Springs in Sweetwater County, about 240 miles west of Cheyenne. It has vast oil, gas and coal reserves. It also has most of the world’s supply of trona, which is refined into soda ash and used in glassmaking and baking soda.

In the late 19th century, men came from around the world to work in Rock Springs’ coal mines. During the last boom, the population climbed from 12,000 in 1970 to 20,000 in 1976. When the bust hit a few years later, homes and apartments were left vacant and Sweetwater County’s tax revenue plummeted.

“Any time the oil and gas industry takes a dive, this county really notices it,” said former County Commission Chairwoman Linda Taliaferro. “Some of the extra programs that people get used to, they have to go.”

Today, about one in six Sweetwater County workers is involved in mining or drilling. Gas rig laborers start at $16 an hour and supervisors earn double that.

The difficult, hazardous work could disappear with the next price drop.

“Drill pipe is not light, and you have the combination of heavy equipment and moving equipment, and working in the rain, working in the snow,” said Rick Robitaille of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. “It can be a dangerous profession, particularly for hands and feet.”

Mark Bond drives 600 miles round-trip every other week between his home in Gillette and a work camp in Wamsutter, a dusty town of about 200 residents 70 miles east of Rock Springs. He lives in a company trailer with 11 other workers. They drill 12 hours a day for seven days, then get seven days off.

“Everybody puts in their share,” he said. “If they’re not earning it, they go down the road.”

Taliaferro, who ranched for many years, said the latest boom lured her husband out of retirement to drive a tractor-trailer rig filled with equipment to some of the 4,700 gas wells in the desert.

Taliaferro sees key differences between today’s activity and earlier booms.

“The sites are clean,” she said. “They take good care of the roads. They seem to be real friendly to the environment, more than they used to be.”

With the new rigs, contractors are busy too.

Brian Forbes’ surveying firm has tripled in the last few years to 54 employees.

Kevin Archer supervises “fracture” crews that crack rock surrounding well holes to increase gas flow. His employer, Schlumberger Well Services, has increased from eight workers in 1985 to 200 today.

“Our competitors are growing just as fast as we are, and none of us can keep up,” he said.

John Marcinek, a car dealer employee, says activity in the oil patch helps everyone. “It will bring a lot of extra taxes back into the county and into the state. It’ll help our school system a lot,” he said.

Although most are pleased to see the surge in drilling, not everyone is happy with the higher utility prices feeding the frenzy.

“If California and those guys are out of power or whatever, why don’t they build more plants instead of raising our prices?” grumbled Mark Crouch while playing pool at a downtown bar.

Last winter, Lisa Kulisz, who waits tables at the Phillips 66 truck stop in Wamsutter, saw her family’s gas bills hit $210 a month. “Oh God, they’re going sky-high,” she said. “But that’s why Wamsutter is so busy today.” Extra business from gas-field workers helped offset Kulisz’s higher bill.

“As it went up, my income went up too--tips, you know,” she said.

Styles, now a pipeline worker, said current activity pales compared to the last surge. “I liked the boom days. I wish they would come back one more time,” he said.

“Interest rates were higher, but nobody noticed because everybody was working. Everybody’s happier when they’re making money. That’s a no-brainer.”