Events are occurring in today's energy and financial markets that could very well return Denver to its former status as a premier growth hub for new energy companies. First, a lot of executive teams are exiting publicly traded oil and gas companies in the Mile High City-either from recent mergers or their simple desire to disengage from the distractions of regulatory and shareholder issues that abound in the public markets. Importantly, they're seeking to start afresh in the private market. Second, there's a virtual flood of private-equity capital available to seasoned oil and gas managements that want to replicate through start-ups their former successes-particularly if those successes involve unconventional natural gas plays in the now-booming Rockies, which holds 40% of the U.S. gas-resource base. The latest private Denver-based start-up to reflect this convergence of events is Laramie Energy LLC. Formed in May, it has a $150-million private-equity commitment from Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) Private Equity and EnCap Investments LP, with initial funding of $30 million. "This is a very opportune time to build a private start-up," says Robert S. Boswell, Laramie chairman and chief executive officer and former head of publicly traded Forest Oil Corp. "There's rising demand for energy, the economy is getting better, commodity prices are strong, and the opportunities in our niche area, the Rockies, are improving dramatically." Boswell notes that, with recent advances in drilling and completion technology, small Rockies-focused operators are now able to explore and produce tight-sands gas, shales and coalbed-methane gas reservoirs that heretofore had been deemed uneconomic. James Schroeder, Laramie president and chief operating officer, is proof. As head of Mesa Hydrocarbons between 1998 and 2003, he grew that private Denver-based gas producer's asset base in Colorado's Piceance Basin from zero reserves to 110 billion cubic feet (Bcf) before it was sold to EnCana Corp. Not surprisingly, the Piceance is where Laramie just made its first acquisition, picking up 20,000 net acres, 18 Bcf of proved Mesaverde gas reserves and 19 wells, half of them producing an average 100,000 cubic feet per day of gas. Through workovers and recompletions, the operator's goal is to get all those wells onstream at triple their current daily rate of output. "What's more important, however, is our acreage in the area, on which we've identified numerous additional drillsites that can be developed over time in an environmentally sensitive fashion-at annual rates of return of more than 20%," says Boswell. The company is also targeting other prospective Rockies tight-sands gas plays, including the Mesaverde in Utah's Uinta Basin and the Almond and Lewis formations in Colorado's Sand Wash Basin and Wyoming's Greater Green River Basin. "In Laramie, we see a management team with a history of creating value for shareholders," says Marty Phillips, managing director and principal for EnCap Investments in Houston. "We also like management's focus on long-lived, low-risk, unconventional Rockies gas plays. The [thinking] is very much aligned with ours." The private-equity provider's commitment to Laramie came from the $525-million EnCap Energy Capital Fund IV. At press time, the $800-million EnCap Energy Capital Fund V was expected to close. In other backings of private Denver-based operators, EnCap participated with CSFB Private Equity in a $190-million private-equity commitment to Medicine Bow Energy and was the sole provider of $60 million of private equity to Cordillera Energy Partners. Says Phillips, "We expect to do more in Denver. The region has a very strong pool of talented management teams." With the wave of recent buyouts of public Denver-based producers, that pool is growing, made up of many management teams that are interested in remaining private. "We see ourselves remaining private, building our company, selling it at some point to meet our investors' return objectives, then starting all over again," says Boswell. "Being a private start-up allows you to start with a clean slate, focus solely on your business plan and create value, without having to deal with a large group of public shareholders or the regulations that now burden publicly traded companies."