By Danny Boyd Special Correspondent Independent oil and gas producers throughout the United States have been kick-starting drilling activity all across the country in 2017, effectively doubling last summer's active rig counts. The same upward-trending pattern can be seen on a regional level in the Rocky Mountains, where the number of rigs making hole has doubled in plays ranging from the Niobrara/Codell in the Denver-Julesburg Basin to the Bakken/Three Forks in the Williston, and the Turner and Parkman "combo" play in Wyoming's Powder River Basin. A glance at May's IHS Markit drilling permit statistics shows that Wyoming is second only to Texas in permitting activity, followed by Colorado. North Dakota ranked not far behind at seventh. The permit numbers clearly indicate Rockies players have even bigger plans in store for the second half of the year. For example, in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming, operators quickly have proven the favorable economics of another horizontal resource play that targets the liquids-rich Turner and Parkman formations. JULY 2017 85