An oil boom remains unlikely in Nebraska despite the success of modern drilling techniques in Colorado and Wyoming.

Oil producers in Colorado extracted 48 million barrels of oil last year mostly from wells close to Nebraska. Wyoming produced 58 million barrels of oil.

But the Nebraska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission’s director Bill Sydow said that the geology of western Nebraska makes an oil boom unlikely.

Sydow says the amount of conductivity in underground formations is considerably lower in Nebraska than in Wyoming and Colorado. Conductivity is an indicator of oil and natural gas deposits.

But there is still oil exploration in Nebraska. Last year, Nebraska wells produced about 2.5 million barrels of oil, up about 10,000 barrels over 2011.