For Immediate Release: March 8, 2023
Denver – Rocky Mountain Wild released Irresponsible Operators, a new statewide mapping project showing that dozens of Colorado’s oil and gas producers are skirting new financial assurance laws that Governor Jared Polis once referred to as the strongest in the nation. Irresponsible financial assurance plans leave Colorado on the hook to cleanup drilling and production sites.
“We created this website to demonstrate that while Colorado’s current financial assurance law may indeed be the toughest in the country, we’re a long way from it actually being followed by these irresponsible operators,” said Alison Gallensky, a conservation geographer with Rocky Mountain Wild. “It is time for the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to enforce the law and require these companies to pay for their messes, instead of allowing them to walk away from their responsibility”
Irresponsible Operators (https://irresponsible.rockymountainwild.org) is an interactive map that shows the location of oil and gas wells operated by companies that have submitted financial assurance plans to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC). The map focuses on operators with lower production, and operators who are proposing a “blanket bond” to cover all of their wells.
The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission passed new financial assurance rules last year that it deemed as the “strongest in the nation.” The goal was to require operators to better prepare to meet the financial costs of plugging wells and reclaiming the surface when the wells are no longer producing in economic quantities.
The state estimates the cost of cleanup at about $120,000 per well on average. However, many operators have proposed putting aside only a few thousand dollars, far short of what is required. If operators don’t clean up after themselves the state of Colorado is on the hook to do so. There are already approximately 1,000 wells and locations that are considered “orphaned” by operators who walked away from their responsibilities to plug and reclaim their wells and well sites.
As of February 3, 2023, 40 operators filed financial assurance plans that appear to violate state law or are not meeting the spirit and intent of the law. These operators have filed financial assurance plans that provide less than 50% of the cleanup amount per well that the law requires. Many of these operators also have numerous low producing and inactive wells in their portfolio.
COGCC will begin holding hearings in April to evaluate whether plans from oil and gas companies are adequate, and will decide whether to enforce these rules, or allow irresponsible oil and gas companies to skirt the rules and force Coloradans to clean up their messes.
Out of the 40 problem operators we are highlighting the following dozen for filing plans that are especially egregious:
| Omimex Petroleum Inc | Low producing operator proposing to post only 2.8% of COGCC-estimated costs. They have 339 wells, 306 are low producing. |
| Williford Resources LLC | Very low producing operator proposing to post only 5.1% of COGCC-estimated costs. They have 51 wells, 50 are low producing. |
| KP Kauffman Company Inc | Very low producing operator proposing to post only 7.8% of COGCC-estimated costs. They have 1,206 wells, 1022 are low producing. |
| CWC Petro LLC | Low producing operator proposing to post only 8.8% of COGCC-estimated costs. They have 48 wells, 28 are low producing. |
| Renegade Oil & Gas Company LLC | Very low producing operator proposing to pay financial assurance over 40 years (rather than 20 years). They have 176 wells, 154 are low producing. |
| Smith Energy LLC | Low producing operator proposing to post only 10.5% of COGCC-estimated costs. They have 198 wells, 28 are low producing. |
| Impetro Resources LLC | Low producing operator proposing to post only 14.5% of COGCC-estimated costs. They have 118 wells, 31 are low producing. |
| Dover Atwood Corporation | Very low producing operator proposing to post only 20% of COGCC-estimated costs. They have 57 wells, all are low producing. |
| Fritzler Resources Inc | Low producing operator proposing to post only 15.5% of COGCC-estimated costs. They have 47 wells, 28 are low producing. |
| Citation Oil & Gas Corp | Low producing operator proposing to post only 32% of COGCC-estimated costs. They have 173 wells, 55 are low producing. |
| Own Resources Operating LLC | Very low producing operator proposing to post only 3.4% of COGCC-estimated costs. They have 3,311 wells, 1,893 are low producing. |
| Evergreen Natural Resources LLC | Operator has 763 low-producing wells including 147 inactive wells. Operator is proposing to post only 34.6% of COGCC-estimated costs. |
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Media Contacts:
Alison Galensky, Rocky Mountain Wild (303) 619-0509 alison@rockymountainwild.org
Matt Sura, attorney and consultant for Rocky Mountain Wild, (720) 563-1866 mattsura.law@gmail.com
Matt Samelson, attorney and consultant for Rocky Mountain Wild, (303) 519-5769 matthewsamelson@gmail.com