Earlier this month, the Denver Business Journal reported on Chama Oil & Minerals LLC’s “big one.” Reporting initial production larger than the infamous “Jake” well in Weld County, the “Pronghorn” well has reportedly tested at over 2,000 barrels per day. Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission information is largely confidential until at least October 2013, but basic information is available including the well’s location within Cheyenne County, Colorado. The Pronghorn well sits just south of the town of Kit Carson in the southern portion of Cheyenne County and north of Eads in nearby Kiowa County. Areas of interest are predominantly Cheyenne and Kiowa counties along with portions of Bent, Prowers, and Lincoln counties. Is southeastern Colorado the next big boom?
Southeastern Colorado has already seen a host of leasing activity over the past several years with companies such as Pioneer Natural Resources and others thought to be leasing for Chesapeake Energy having taken a large number of leases. The volume of leasing is evidenced by shear dollar numbers generated in recording fees in Kiowa County where the total number of documents increased from 930 in 2010 to 2,068 in 2011 and to 5,241 in 2012. For those that didn’t opt to lease, opportunities and options for leasing have drastically increased and improved in the past several months.
Oil and gas activity may be a welcome sign for landowners suffering from drought and dry conditions while at the same time multi-generational livestock and farming operations that have survived for hundreds of years without oil and gas may justifiably see development as a legitimate threat to their other successful operations and rural lifestyle. Having roots in agricultural and eastern Colorado myself, my fervent hope is that the local farmers, ranchers, and communities will benefit, but not at the expense of the livelihood that has made those communities what they are today. There are good people in southeastern Colorado and hopefully the oil and gas companies will treat the communities, their citizens, and above all, the land, with the respect so deserved to this area.
Jenna H. Keller, Esq.
Attorney at Keller Law, LLC. (www.kellerlawllc.com)
Jenna H. Keller provides legal services to farmers, ranchers, rural property owners, and severed mineral interest owners in the areas of estate planning, natural resources (oil, gas, wind), real estate, and water throughout Colorado and western Nebraska.
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