Modest improvements continue in Wyoming economy

Wyoming’s economy has begun the new year with some modest improvements, largely due to gains in the state’s fossil fuel industries over the second half of 2017.

A two-year slump in prices that drove companies to bankruptcy and layoffs has now partially given way to increased oil drilling interest and company spending.

The Casper Star-Tribune reports that many of the gains are the result of improvements in the price of crude, which jumped up in January after six months of stable, if minor, advances.

State economists say the number of applications to drill for oil in Wyoming were 28 percent higher in the second half of 2017, compared to the previous year. Company interest in drilling for gas was up nearly 68 percent.