After a five-year authorized battle, Civitas Assets has indefinitely paused its plans to acquire mineral leases and drill as much as 32 wells on a conservation easement owned by Boulder County.
Crestone Peak Assets, which was acquired by Civitas, obtained permits from the Colorado Oil and Gasoline Conservation Fee to drill its proposed Blue Paintbrush pad on the land in 2018.
Whereas Civitas — one of many prime 5 oil and gasoline producers in Colorado in 2022 — might have retreated from the sector in Boulder County, it has massive tasks in Erie and in Arapahoe County.
The oil and gasoline operator sought to acquire mineral leases held by Boulder County, masking 552 acres. The county went to court docket to dam Civitas, which was previously Extraction OIl and Gasoline, from having access to the leases, which contain property west of County Line Street, between Quail and Oxford roads, south of Longmont.
The county and the corporate have been again in court docket in Could 2022, and in July Civitas despatched a letter to the county stating that if it didn’t signal leases the driller would search an order from the COGCC to “power pool” the leases, merging the county minerals into the mission by administrative order.
A listening to on the power pooling order was set for later this month and in Civitas’ earnings report for the primary quarter of 2023, the corporate stated it supposed “to vigorously defend in opposition to all claims alleged by Boulder County, each within the pooling listening to and in any subsequent motion introduced by Boulder County.”
The county, nevertheless, stated in a launch that it was knowledgeable Monday that Civitas would halt its plan for the Blue Paintbrush web site.
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Civitas didn’t reply to phone and e-mail requests by The Colorado Solar for remark.
“These oil and gasoline rights have been bought with taxpayer funds that require us to guard them from growth. We’re more than happy that now we have succeeded in doing that,” Boulder County Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann stated in a press release.
Civitas, nevertheless, is pursuing oil and gasoline growth elsewhere on the Entrance Vary. In October, the COGCC gave the corporate a inexperienced mild to drill 19 horizontal oil and gasoline wells between Broomfield and Erie — over protests from Broomfield.
The corporate can also be searching for oil and gasoline fee approval to drill as much as 174 wells on 12 new and present nicely pads on Arapahoe County property owned by the Colorado State Land Board as a part of its Lowry Ranch drilling mission.
A grassroots group against the drilling plan — Save the Aurora Reservoir — has already fashioned to problem the corporate.
Wells could be as shut as 2,000 toes to properties and the reservoir — the state-mandated setback — in line with the group’s web site.
Originally posted 2023-05-08 09:13:00.