If you're a big oil and gas producer, perhaps you can see past this treacherous muck that is today's economy to a future three years out. But some smaller producers without big credit might not hold out that long.

Coal-bed methane producer CH4 Energy went under a few years ago. Recently, Storm Cat Energy Corp. and Powder River Basin Gas Corp. filed for bankruptcy.

So far, the properties are being picked up by other producers, which means the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission hasn't had to spend anything from its fund to plug abandoned wells. But more bankruptcies and consolidation are expected in Wyoming's coal-bed methane industry.

Industry experts expect a significant decline in oil and gas drilling statewide this year - as much as 30 percent. It's a nauseating change of pace for a state that has averaged a 6.4 percent annual growth in natural gas production for the past 10 years.

Many are rightly concerned that depressed gas prices due to the region's limited pipeline export capacity, combined with difficult access to credit and the high cost of steel and other materials, will squeeze out small Mom and Pop producers. In the Powder River Basin, that applies to about 50 to 60 companies.

Yet even as the industry makes cuts, millions of dollars are still being spent on long-term enhanced oil recovery projects. The reason is that it takes four or five years to put together an enhanced oil recovery program. The expectation is that the price of oil will recover and the price of commodities, such as steel, will settle on lower demand.

"The belief is the price of a barrel of oil will increase, not at $40 and not at $140, but somewhere between. So I think there's interest in getting some of these projects outlined and doing their homework," said Lon Whitman, corporate outreach officer for the University of Wyoming's Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute.

Carbon dioxide floods can be particularly capital intensive. However, there are plenty of other methods to sweep crude from old oil fields - water and chemical flooding, for instance. Whitman said oil producers seem to have shifted from crafting huge enhanced oil recovery projects to smaller, incremental strategies.

"They're re-evaluating properties in general. Some things considered a year ago are maybe being put on the backburner, and they're looking at fields for less capital-intensive projects," Whitman said.

Energy reporter Dustin Bleizeffer can be reached at (307) 577-6069 or dustin.bleizeffer@trib.com.