Once a thriving oil and natural gas company listed on the stock exchange – Ultra Petroleum, the major player in the Pinedale Anticline – is now private and pared its local staff with layoffs Wednesday.

Ultra Petroleum emerged from its second bankruptcy in October as a private company, UP Energy LLC. It isn’t known at this time how many or which type of employees have been laid off.

Ultra’s Kelly Bott provided the Pinedale Roundup with the Dec. 3 statement about layoffs from UP Energy’s new management team, Christopher Valdez and Ty Harrison.

“Our industry has been acutely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitics,” Valdez wrote in his statement to the Pinedale Roundup. “Upon emergence from bankruptcy, UP Energy was sized like a pre-pandemic, public company with a substantial drilling and completion program.

“Unfortunately, staff reductions must be part of the turnaround process to ensure the future success of the organization, but we have been transparent with UP employees about the difficult decisions regarding reductions in force,” he wrote. “To be a leading organization in the energy industry going forward, UP must have a renewed focus on operational efficiency and continue our emphasis on safety and ESG. UP’s organizational structure will be aligned with these focus areas.”