With oil and gas development operations slowing down in El Paso County, the October meeting held by the El Paso County local government designee, Diana May, drew a small crowd. As the LGD, May facilitates conversations between constituents of the county and people in the oil and gas industry. Those in attendance included representatives from Upstream Petroleum Management Inc., NexGen Oil & Gas, the Colorado Oil and Gas Association (via phone), the LGDs from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and Huerfano County; and interested community members.Kim Rodell with Upstream said the Mustang Creek Holdings project, which both Upstream and NexGen are working on, has submitted the required permits to the county to begin drilling two wells.According to the July issue of The New Falcon Herald, the Mustang Creek project has picked two sites: the Graham 1-13 well located in EPC, east of Davenport Road, where Judge Orr Road ends; and the Prescott Ranches 32-34 well located in Elbert County, south of County Road 34.Jim Halvatzis, senior land man with NexGen, said the wells will be drilled vertically to about 11,000 feet; there are no plans to hydraulically fracture either well. He said the plan is to begin drilling sometime this year; the drilling could take about one month to complete for each well.ìThe area is very unknown if it will work (produce oil and/or natural gas) or not,î Halvatzis said. ìThe Niobrara is not the primary target for these wells.î According to the NFH article, the Cherokee ñ Atoka formations are the focus for these wells.Following the extensive flooding in northern Colorado in September, COGA launched an investigation to assess the effects of the floods on existing oil and gas operations in the area, said Sarah Landry, COGA representative. ìThere were no fracking operations within the flood-impacted area,î she said. All the tanks that spilled were storage tanks, Landry said.According to the Oct. 9 update on COGAís website at http://coga.org, ìThe agency (COGCC) is tracking 13 notable releases of oil totaling 43,134 gallons. The agency is also tracking 17 releases of produced water totaling 26,385 gallons.îAccording to the Oct. 8 update, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment shows no evidence of pollutants from oil and gas spills in the rivers and streams affected by the flooding.The next LGD meeting is Feb. 5, 2014, at 2 p.m. in the Pikes Peak Conference Room at Centennial Hall.
