The DJ/Niobrara Basin | June 2022

Field Overview

Located mainly in the Northeast of Colorado, the Denver-Julesburg Basin consists of five main oil-producing formations: Niobrara sections A-C, Codell, and Greenhorn. These five plays produce over 90% of Colorado’s oil/gas.

State Drilling Statistics

Active Drilling Rigs in Basin- 17 (+1)
Total Rigs in Colorado- 21 (+2)
Total Rigs in United States- 762 (+6)
Total U.S. Rigs 52% YTD

State Permitting Data
Permits Approved – 57

State Top Producers

Top Producer By BOE – Kinder Morgan

Basin Highlights

Chevron Poised To Market Responsibly Sourced Gas From Texas and Colorado

On the rise emissions control company Project Canary is helping Colorado and Texas oil and gas companies to greatly reduce their methane emissions. Chevron is one company that, thanks to Project Canary, will soon be offering responsibly sourced gas (RSG). Chevron will begin sale of the RSG from its Permian and DJ basin assets in the second half of 2022. Of all the companies that work with Project Canary to perform emissions testing, Chevron has scored the highest as of late. The certification process involves continuous monitoring of individual wells by a third party, more can be read through the link above. 

Plan for up to 10 oil trains a day through Colorado on track for administration’s approval

Colorado railways may soon be seeing much more traffic in the coming years as discussion of opening them up to rail cars carrying crude from Utah’s Uinta basin near fruition. Should the permit be given, oil and gas production in Utah would see a significant increase as transporting the product to refineries on the Gulf Coast would become much easier. The proposed route includes running along the Colorado River, under a few tunnels, and through central Denver. This could mean up to an extra 10 two-mile-long trains, traveling the route on a daily basis. Despite pushback from over 100 environmental groups, the permit is expected to be approved in the next several months. 

Colorado utilities plan ‘very rapid transition’ off coal

In 2019 Colorado passed a law that sought to reduce GHG emission levels 90% by 2050 when compared to 2005 levels. The state’s two largest utility companies were required by the law to submit goals and plans to help meet the emissions goals. Three years later the state is doing quite well, even ahead of plan. The next big step is to wean the state off of coal power in the next decade, the effort will be led by Xcel energy and be instrumental in meeting climate goals. One plant will be converted to natural gas and the rest simply retired. Xcel will also begin to invest more heavily in wind and solar to make up for lost power generation. 

Top CO Permitting By Operator

Top Producers by BOE

Change	Rank	Company	MBOE Production (Jan-Mar/22)
+1	1	Kinder Morgan	13.5
-1	2	Kerr McGee (Occidental)	12.3
–	3	PDC Energy	10.3
–	4	Noble Energy (Chevron)	8.7
–	5	TEP Rocky Mountain	7.1

Rig Count

Colorado Production

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The information contained in this newsletter is provided by RARE
PETRO Engineering, PLLC via the following sources unless otherwise
noted:

www.eia.gov
www.drillinginfo.com
www.bhge.com
RARE Petro Analytics