Asset Retirement Obligations

Colorado Data Portal

The Asset Retirement Obligations (ARO) program focuses on the costs of decommissioning oil and gas infrastructure and the financial assurance held by governments to cover these costs. To date, the work has focused on onshore wells in the United States.

In this section, you will find:

  • The State View tab, which provides a broad overview of the industry in the selected state. This includes various map views, navigable by the tabs below, as well as a number of charts and visualizations summarizing industry activity.
  • The Operator View tab, where you can search for an individual operator in the state and see a summary of the history and current state of the operator's activities.


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State Oil and Gas Data Summary

Total Wells100482Wells for which drilling has been confirmed. Excludes expired drilling permits and abandoned drilling locations.
Unplugged Wells46920Wells with confirmed drilling and a status other than "Plugged and Abandoned".
Producing Wells38741Unplugged wells that have submitted positive production reports in the past 12 months.
Total Operators3615Count of oil and gas operators in the state, includes inactive operators.
Active Operators3081Count of active oil and gas operators in the state.

Production Classification

Classification of wells based on their production levels.
Producing
30.5% (14609)
Low Producing
50.3% (24132)
No Production
19.2% (9199)
Classification Explanation:
Producing: Wells producing more than 15 BOE oil or 90 MCFE gas per day.
Low Producing: Wells producing above zero but not meeting the higher thresholds (15 BOE or 90 MCFE).
No Production: Wells with no daily production.

Oil & Gas Summary

Monthly oil and gas production totals and averages.
Month2024-10
Total Oil Volume14706431 BOE
Total Gas Volume27263837.33 MCFE
Avg Daily Oil490214.37 BOE/d
Avg Daily Gas908794.58 MCFE/d

Idle Wells Analysis

Wells with "Shut In", "Temporarily Abandoned," or "Suspended Operations" status.
Total Idle Wells5400
Percentage Idle11.86%
Average Age of Idle Wells23.28 years
Average Idle Time3.01 years
Idle Time Distribution:
Year 1 1437 wells
Year 2 1321 wells
Year 3 843 wells
Year 5 1057 wells
Year 7 359 wells
Year 10 204 wells
Year 15 97 wells
Year 25 34 wells

High-Risk Watchlist

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Operator CTI Risk Ranking
The operator's position relative to peers, based on the composite score. A lower rank means higher relative risk.
CTI Risk Score
A weighted index representing relative operational and financial risk. Higher scores indicate more low-producing wells, lower average output, more violations, and weaker bonding coverage.
Average BOE per well Total Unplugged Wells Low Producing Wells (<3 BOE/d) Low Producing Ratio
Percentage of producing wells with average output below 3 BOE/day over the past year — a proxy for underperforming or marginal assets.
Total Violations Bonding Total Estimated ARO Cost
Carbon Tracker's estimated cost to the operator to safely close, plug, and remediate all wells operated by the company — used to assess bonding adequacy.
Coverage Percentage Funding Gap
KT RESOURCES LLC10.870.251071071002431200013642084.782.2913330084.78
WILLIFORD RESOURCES LLC20.80.38525198.088800003040045.932.632960045.93
MAGPIE OPERATING INC30.7913.05816482.052912874808926997.8614.427639517.86
KP KAUFFMAN COMPANY INC40.760.61201116296.911361085000126560740.890.86125475740.89
PCR OPERATING LLC50.710161160100352500017222449.423.0516697449.42
RENEGADE OIL & GAS COMPANY LLC60.680.4617817096.05358000020894728.292.7820314728.29
WESTERN OPERATING COMPANY70.672.86755472122620005511576.614.755249576.61
LOCIN OIL CORPORATION80.660.726926097.017203000019311973.7210.5117281973.72
53 rows
CSV

Notes

The High-Risk Watchlist uses a filtering and composite scoring process to identify high-risk oil and gas operators. It first filters for low-producing operators and those with 50+ wells and violations, then excludes those with strong bonding. A composite score—based on low production percentage, average production per well, violation ratio, and bonding percentage—ranks the remaining operators by risk level, helping quickly flag those warranting closer attention.

Notes

Aggregated monthly oil and gas volumes since 2000. Data is normalized to Barrel-of-Oil Equivalent (BOE) and updated monthly with the latest available data. There is typically a three-month delay in reporting.

State Well Status Distribution

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State Well Classification Distribution

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Well Spuds and Plugging Activity Over Time

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Cumulative Total of Unplugged Wells

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