Bill Barrett, Colorado oil and gas explorer, dies at 96

By many years of working for oil and fuel corporations and beginning just a few that bore his identify, William “Invoice” J. Barrett at all times considered himself as a wildcatter, an individual who strikes out in quest of the subsequent promising play.

Barrett’s loss of life on Sept. 16 “sort of represents an finish of an period, the place the target was to discover and discover new fields,” mentioned his son, Joe Barrett.

Barrett died at his Denver residence from issues of a stroke. He was 96.

Initially from Topeka, Kansas, Barrett served within the U.S. Military through the Korean Conflict and earned a grasp’s diploma in geology from Kansas State College. His first vitality job was with El Paso Pure Fuel Co. in Utah and New Mexico, the place he was a stratigrapher. He analyzed the geology to information exploration.

Barrett went on to work with Amoco Corp. in Wyoming and Colorado, after which grew to become chief geologist for Wolf Exploration in Denver in 1967. At Wolf, he was credited with discovering the 20-million-plus barrel Hilight oil subject and the large Madden natural gas field, each in Wyoming.

Joe Barrett mentioned his father had the traits of a real wildcatter: imaginative and prescient, fortitude and decisiveness. “He had the braveness to take a threat and preserve attempting if it didn’t work out. He was at all times on the lookout for the subsequent new discovery.”

In 1969, Barrett partnered with Chuck Shear to type B&C Exploration, which the Williams Corporations purchased in 1978. Barrett then began Barrett Power, which rebranded as Barrett Sources when it went public in 1983. The corporate found new oil and fuel fields in North Dakota, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado.

Barrett was lauded by the West Slope Colorado Oil and Fuel Affiliation as a “Pioneer of the Piceance” for recognizing the potential of the gas-rich Western Slope basin and growing it.

The Williams Corporations acquired Barrett Sources in 2001. Barrett reduce brief his retirement in 2002 to hitch his two youngest sons to start out Invoice Barrett Corp. He retired once more when he was 77.

Invoice Barrett Corp., considered one of Colorado’s largest publicly traded oil and fuel producers, merged with Fifth Creek Power. The corporate developed into Excessive Level Sources.

“Invoice was the prototypical ‘wildcatter.’ He was the usual towards which all others within the enterprise have been measured,” mentioned Mike Bock, co-founder, president and chief monetary officer of Petrie Companions, a Denver-based funding banking agency that works with the vitality trade.

Amongst Barrett’s skilled honors, he was chosen as wildcatter of the yr by the Impartial Petroleum Affiliation of Mountain States, now Western Power Alliance; chosen because the American Affiliation of Petroleum Geologists’ Explorer of the Yr; and inducted into the Western Power Alliance Corridor of Fame and the Southeast Utah Power Producers Affiliation Corridor of Fame.

Barrett acquired an honorary doctorate in engineering from the Colorado Faculty of Mines.

Bock mentioned Barrett was an inspiration for him in his profession in oil and fuel funding banking. “He was at all times keen to take the time with me, as with others, to be a affected person instructor and in addition a cautious listener,” Bock mentioned in an electronic mail.

And he at all times made time for household, Joe Barrett mentioned of his father. Barrett was considered one of 10 kids. Beginning at a younger age, he helped together with his household’s poultry enterprise. He met Louise Kuhn whereas delivering chickens to her residence. They married in 1950 and have been collectively till Louise’s loss of life in 2021.