At the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners April meeting, Craig Dossey, development services project manager for the county, updated the board about three vertical drilling and testing sites operated by Ultra Resources. The commissioners had approved the sites earlier this year.ìUltra, as of today, has drilled two sites, called Olive Oyl and Brutus,î he said. ìThe third site, Spinach: They are not progressing with at this time.îThe Brutus well site is the furthest east, near Handle Road and south of Highway 94, Dossey said. Olive Oyl is the most southwestern site, near Bradley and Drennan roads; and the Spinach site is south of Squirrel Creek Road, he said.Ultra has also received approval for a fourth site, called Ponderosa, at Blaney Road and Highway 94, but Dossey said the site is not currently active. The site will include one vertical test well and up to four directional wells, he said.The Olive Oyl site has undergone hydraulic fracturing or fracking but no results have been sent back to the county at the time of the meeting, Dossey said. ìAll indications are that they (Ultra) will eventually do a directional wellbore and test that as well.î A directional wellbore is drilled in any other direction but vertical.ìAnother company has shown interest in our area,î he said. Hilcorp Energy Co. has submitted early assistance applications for two sites: State and Myers. ìBoth sites are situated along Peyton Highway,î Dossey said. ìThis haul route is important because Peyton Highway is a chip and seal road, not a gravel or state highway. The damage and mitigation of that damage will be different. We’re having to recalculate the amount of financial assurance we need based on a chip and seal road versus gravel roads.îDossey said that since January 31 the county has seen two applications for expansion of the Olive Oyl and Brutus sites because the original sizes were too small. ìThe expansion will allow for up to eight directional wells on each site,î he said. ìNone of these directional wells have been drilled yet.î
