Petroleum employers giving Aurora the gas, too

AURORA | Among professionals in the oil and gas world, it’s no secret that there are big dollars to be made and jobs to be had all over the North-Central United States. And while it’s true that production is booming in natural gas and oil fields across Wyoming and North Dakota, a new study from the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business released on Oct. 9 revealed that there are nearly 100,000 direct, indirect and induced oil and gas jobs right here in Colorado, nearly 20 percent of which are based in Denver and Arapahoe counties.

Researchers Brian Lewandowski, Richard Wobbekind and Ernie Chung, calculated there to be nearly 31,900 direct oil and gas workers across Colorado as of 2012, and over 61,600 more jobs supported by the industry after the addition of a multiplier. Based on data collected between 2008 and 2012, the study found that Arapahoe County had the fifth highest concentration of oil and gas jobs among all 64 counties across the state. Arapahoe County boasted 2,790 direct, indirect and induced industry jobs as of 2012, behind Garfield, Mesa, Weld and Denver counties, the latter boasting the highest concentration of all Colorado counties with 18,044 direct, indirect and induced oil and gas positions.

The industry pumped $126.5 billion into the Colorado economy between 2008 and 2012, though 88% of the state’s oil and gas production came from just five counties: Weld, Garfield, La Plata, Rio Blanco and Montezuma, according to the study.

The fact that Denver county – which boasts zero oil and gas production – is home to the most industry jobs stood out to even the study’s research team, who said that the statistic speaks to the breadth of oil and gas in Colorado.

“I think the main takeaway for me was how spread out the benefits from this industry are,” Lewandowski said. “The benefits stretch far beyond the counties where we have oil and gas production activity.”

Many of those nearly 32,000 direct positions – spread across drilling, extraction, pipeline transportation and construction – are, particularly in Denver and Arapahoe counties, white collar positions held by executives, accountants and financial analysts, according to Lewandowski.

“About 60 percent of the jobs in that number [31,900] are the field workers, people serving the land and putting pipe in the ground,” he said. “And about 40 percent of the jobs are remote or office jobs, and that explains why there’s such a concentration of activity with the Denver-metro region and Denver proper.”

Researchers found that the number of oil and gas firms steadily increased during the study’s timeframe (Arapahoe County added 64), though there were slight dips in indirect and induced jobs. Lewandowski said the ebb and flow of induced jobs can be influenced by ever-changing market conditions, though technological advances like fracking aim to change the variable nature of the industry.

“The volatility isn’t new, we’ve seen plenty of booms and busts before,” Lewandowski said. “Technology has allowed the floor to be lowered for production. With horizontal drilling and fracking, they’re able to effectively make these projects more feasible at a certain price point than they were before.”

The study found that direct industry workers garnered $3.2 billion in wages, which is twice the average wage across all Colorado industries. Lewandowski and his team revealed the average annual income of a direct Arapahoe County oil and gas worker to be $115,212. A bulk of those jobs is housed in the Denver Tech Center in Centennial and Greenwood Village, something officials at the City of Aurora hope to change.

“Those numbers just speak to the importance of office employment and administrative opportunities,” Dick Hinson, senior vice president of the Aurora Economic Development Council, said. “We have a lack of class “A” office space in Aurora, which is something we’re working to resolve. One of the biggest benefits of quality office space is that it can attract those high paying jobs.”

Hinson said that the city is working to update oil and gas regulations in order to make the climate more amenable to companies interested in a potential move to Aurora.

“Just the fact that the city is looking at updating regulations and realizes that this industry is growing speaks to the fact that they know it’s growing quickly in this area.”