At least one oil and gas company claims to have figured out the tricky Niobrara shale play in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming.

Chesapeake Energy executives told investors that results from the basin are picking up.

“In the Powder River Niobrara play, we’ve finally cracked the code with numerous recent wells” into newly identified drilling areas, said Steven Dixon, Chesapeake’s chief operating officer and vice president of operations and geosciences.

If the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission’s production and permitting numbers are any indication, the company won’t be alone for long.

Nearly 430 drilling permits – which precede but don’t guarantee actual wells – have been doled out for operators in Campbell and Converse counties already this year, just less than 2011′s total of 485 permits. In 2010, drillers in the two counties requested only 168. The numbers seem to indicate growing interest in the area, including wells sunk into the Niobrara, which has at times confounded drillers. MORE …