Preliminary work could launch next year on what will eventually be the construction of nearly 500 gas and oil wells just to the south of Greeley, Colorado.
The more than $1.5 billion project belongs to PDC Energy of Denver and will see the wells built over a period of nearly a decade on just over 33,400 acres.
The project, which has won the approval of the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission, will also see the construction of a vast network of pipelines. Uniquely, the pipeline infrastructure will move out hydrocarbon-tainted water, crude oil, and natural gas liquids rather than depositing them in storage tanks.
It is PDC Energy’s efforts with this project to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pollution that has earned the company positive notice and led to the unanimous conservation commission approval vote.
According to the Denver Business Journal, the project, officially called the Guanella Comprehensive Area Plan, will improve air quality in an area that is also a part of the northern Front Range simply because it will “replace so many older wells and storage tanks.”
In a statement, Bart Brookman, chief executive officer of PDC Energy, noted that with the company’s ongoing commitment to electrification: “We are well positioned to produce some of the cleanest hydrocarbon molecules in the world from the DJ basin.”
The Denver-Julesburg Basin stretches from just to the south of Denver to southeast Wyoming, and includes western Nebraska and western Kansas.
PDC Energy, formerly known as the Petroleum Development Corporation, was founded in 1969 and has through the decades specialized in the development and production of both natural gas and oil.
By Garry Boulard
