Front Range Fracking Fight: Gunbarrel May Be Next

BOULDER, CO -- Extraction Oil and Gas sent off a warning flare about their plans for drilling near Gunbarrel last week. According to reporting by the Daily Camera, residents in the Heatherwood neighborhood received letters from Rocky Mountain Hydrocarbon offering to lease their minerals.

The letters arrived at the same time that Superior residents were successfully fending off a drilling threat from the much smaller and less-established operator, Highlands Natural Resources. Extraction was the operator at the Windsor pad that went up in a fiery explosion last December, and currently operates more than 1,000 active wells across the state, according to the most recent statistics from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

"Residents have informed us of these lease offers. The county doesn't get involved in private contract issues, but can provide information to residents. If and when Extraction applied for permits to drill at the COGCC, the county would likely be involved and Extraction would also have to come through the county's permitting process," Senior Assistant Boulder County Attorney Kate Burke told the Daily Camera.

In Colorado, mineral owners can be forced into leases that they don't want through a process called "forced pooling". Even if just one party in a proposed area agrees to a lease, the operator can get an order from the state to combine the mineral rights of a group of property owners into a cohesive drilling unit.

Get the full story from the Daily Camera here.

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