Vanguard Natural Resources to invest over $20 million in western Colorado.

Regardless of your political views on hydraulic fracturing, it's been a game changer for the oil and gas industry. The Piceance Basin in western Colorado and eastern Utah is one of the largest fields in the US. It's known to contain 5 of the top 50 US gas fields in its reserves. Vanguard Natural Resources plans to invest somewhere between $20 million to $26 million to drill and complete 14 natural gas wells in the Basin.

Vanguard Natural Resources reports that its holdings in the Piceance Basin are one of its 3 core growth assets and is committing the assets to its growth. Vanguard says too that drilling in Colorado in 2018 will help it delineate its large drilling location inventory in the Piceance Basin. Vanguard reports having somewhere around 500 undeveloped drilling locations there.

What does this new investment and drilling activity mean for the local economy? It's this just a one-off or the beginning of another oil and gas boom for western Colorado?

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