Whether it's Loveland, Erie, Windsor or Fort Collins, oil companies quickly have learned that trying to drill near these Northern Colorado cities and towns can trigger huge gushers of opposition. Except for in Greeley.

Amid the glut of oil producers, the company benefiting most from Greeley's attitude – a mindset that so far has embraced rather than resisted Big Oil – is a small yet growing operator, Greeley-based Mineral Resources Inc.

The company owns a working interest in some 90 percent of the wells in Greeley, and while others in the business find themselves in one public relations battle after the next, Mineral Resources is growing fast with seemingly little standing in its way.

Arlo Richardson, the founder and president of the company, was among the first to drill within city limits, helping to pioneer the oil boom in the Denver-Julesburg Basin, which includes large parts of Weld County.

Today, the company operates 70 wells in Greeley and LaSalle. It has drilled 34 wells on one well pad alone near the densely populated junction of Highways 34 and 85.

A search for extra income

Richardson acknowledges he was somewhat lucky when the first wells