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Colorado Oil and Gas Permits Reach Record High This Year

Posted on: Friday, 23 September 2005, 21:00 CDT

Sep. 23--Oil and gas permits issued by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission will reach record highs this year and that trend is expected to continue, especially if a new spacing request for wells is approved.

Tricia Beaver, hearings manager with the commission, told participants at the Northern Colorado Energy Summit Thursday afternoon that more than 4,000 permits will be issued by the end of the year.

The summit was organized by the Greeley/Weld Economic Development Action Partnership, the city of Greeley and Weld County government. It drew about 125 people to the University of Northern Colorado.

Three companies -- Kerr McGee Rocky Mountain Corp., EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc., and Noble Energy Production Inc. -- filed an application with the commission in June asking approval to expand the number of wells they can drill in a specific parcel of land.

Currently, the law allows companies to have five drilling windows in a quarter section -- 160 acres -- of land within the Wattenburg Field, a basin that holds most of Weld County's oil and natural gas reserves.

Ken Wonstolen, senior vice president and legal counsel with the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, said there are 12,000 wells in the Wattenburg Field, which produce two to three barrels of oil per day. Wells in the Middle East, he said, typically produce between 2,000 and 4,000 barrels per day.

"The Wattenburg is a tight sandstone formation that doesn't give up production easily," Wonstolen said. But one deep well in the field is capable of producing enough natural gas to provide 600 homes with the gas they need for 10 years.

If the application by the three companies is approved -- the commission has scheduled a hearing Nov. 17 on the proposal -- they would be allowed to drill eight wells on a quarter section.

Beaver said Weld has issued 832 permits, 28.5 percent of all those issued in the state. As of Sept. 1, Weld trailed only Garfield County in the number of new permits.

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Copyright (c) 2005, Greeley Tribune, Colo.

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KMG, ECA, NBL,

Source: Greeley Tribune, Colorado

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