Late this summer, more than 1,000 buysiders went to the Mile High City in search of growth stories among 95 energy companies presenting at The 11th Oil & Gas Conference hosted by Denver-based investor-relations and advisory firm EnerCom Inc. "Five or six years ago, a lot of people were saying that oil and gas was a sunset industry, but from a sunrise-to-sunset perspective, I believe we're now maybe at 10 o'clock in the morning-and alternative energy sources aren't on the immediate horizon," says Greg Barnett, EnerCom's founder and president. "Most investors, I believe, understand that the 'E' in E&P stands for earnings, not expectations. They also understand that this is an industry that could still generate good returns for investors, even at $55 oil." What buysiders heard from the two-thirds E&P presenters were the themes of cost containment and improving margins-stressed by such operators as Forest Oil Corp., Ultra Petroleum, St. Mary Land & Exploration and Chesapeake Energy. On the service side, they heard drillers like Nabors Industries and Helmerich & Payne discuss the value they're bringing to the table, in terms of helping operators get more oil and gas out of the ground. "These weren't overly exuberant industry leaders that are building their companies on $100 oil or $10 gas," says Barnett. "These are people still running their economics on $45 to $50 oil and $5 to $5.50 gas." For more on this, see the October issue of Oil and Gas Investor. For a subscription, call 713-260-6441.