Why are we still in Denver? If the company were building its office model today from clean sheet, nobody in their right mind would land on the current three-city model. The epicenter of oil and gas is clearly Houston. That’s where the investors, bankers, dealmakers, and leadership teams actually are. There’s a reason why numerous companies have recently moved there to join the rest of the oil and universe.
At the same time, Calgary still makes sense. It’s a strong base for back-office like accounting, IT, and HR, and some shared services. A simple Houston/Calgary structure would put leadership where the industry actually operates while keeping an efficient, low labour cost hub in place.
Denver is the one that doesn't make sense. The city has a weak oil and gas talent pool, high housing and labour costs, downtown crime, a political climate that’s increasingly hostile to oil and gas and the city literally stinks like you know what. There's a reason why oil and gas companies have been steadily leaving Denver of the past few decades. It's dying a sad, slow death. Strip away the politics and personal reasons and the answer is obvious.