DENVER – Judging from the opening remarks at Hart Energy’s DUG Bakken Niobrara Conference and Exhibition on May 30, Colorado is poised to strike it rich again. This time, it will not be from the gold mines of Central City. Instead, the new wave of prosperity and jobs will come from the Niobrara formation and the DJ Basin.

Chuck Davidson, the chairman and chief executive of Noble Energy, has a direct explanation about why this expected growth will actually happen. “Technology has unlocked an incredible number of doors,” he said.

That technology, Davidson says, has spawned an upswing in drilling. “We are seeing a volume of drilling that we have not seen in decades,” he said.

Davidson compared today’s drilling activity to that in 1972, when drill count peaked. “After that, we thought we had entered into an era of irreversible decline. But by next year in the Niobrara, we may well be above 8 million barrels per day.”

With the gushing of oil comes a need for more jobs, Davidson says. Citing an IHS report, he said that the oil and gas industry could support 3 million jobs in the region by 2012.

A piece of the puzzle that will need to be resolved is a “massive infrastructure” to transport oil and gas to its proper destinations, Davidson said.

“Some days I actually think I’m the rail and trucking business,” Davidson said, illustrating Noble’s focus on transportation. He also said the company is currently involved in the expansion of the White Cliffs Pipeline, which moves oil out of the DJ Basin to the Cushing market.

A ‘Top-Tier Play’

Davidson calls the DJ Basin no less than a “top-tier play.” He says, “It’s comparable to many other plays. Oil in place is estimated to be at 74 million barrels of oil equivalent per section, and resources grew 60% last year. And we expect recoveries to continue to improve.”

Noble Energy, which has interests in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, West Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean and U.S. onshore, likes “the oil window” of Wattenberg Field.

In fact, Noble is so enamored with the Wattenberg’s potential that it has ramped up its expectations for drilling and production. The company expects to drill 500 wells per year by 2016, Davidson says. A year ago, forecasts called for only 350 per year. Noble now is expecting 1,100 more completions by 2016 than it was a year ago.

Noble is also branching out to the East Pony area in the North Colorado Niobrara. Davidson said the company expects to drill 80 wells there this year.

And Noble apparently has justification for putting such a strong emphasis on the Niobrara.

“I never would have imagined that you would see one million barrels out of a Niobrara well,” Davison said.