Company is still optimistic about Niobrara Oil Shale

Wells drilled in the Niobrara shale in southeastern Wyoming aren’t producing nearly as much oil as some had expected. But Anadarko Petroleum, one of the big oil companies exploring the shale, expressed nothing but optimism at a Business Expo in Cheyenne Tuesday.

The company’s general manager for regulatory affairs, Brad Miller says in the initial stages of drilling –they expect mixed results. “Because what people are doing is they’ve drilled wells – 51 wells have been drilled. There’s mixed results on those. And they have to go out and figure that out. We have to put our engineers and geologists to work. The ones that are successful – why were they successful? The ones that weren’t – how do we make those successful?”

Miller says he’s confident that the Niobrara shale will yield a lot of oil , but he says it will take several years for companies to figure out exactly where to drill and which technologies to use.