Which operators are most responsible for the record number of Weld County oil spills? Here’s the breakdown for the top 10 operators for the first months of 2025.
| Operator | January 2025 | February 2025 | March 2025 | April 2025 | Total YTD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Noble Energy Inc | 72 | 68 | 108 | 143 | 391 |
| Kerr McGee Oil & Gas Onshore LP | 48 | 28 | 43 | 52 | 171 |
| PDC Energy Inc | 9 | 13 | 8 | 13 | 43 |
| Crestone Peak Resources Operating LLC | 6 | 8 | 7 | 14 | 35 |
| Extraction Oil & Gas Inc | 1 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 12 |
| Caerus Piceance LLC | 8 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 11 |
| KP Kauffman Company Inc | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 10 |
| Citation Oil & Gas Corp | 2 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 9 |
| Bayswater Exploration & Production LLC | 6 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 9 |
| Bonanza Creek Energy Operating Company LLC | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 8 |
The top offender is Noble Energy Inc. The 143 spills reported at Noble Energy facilities account for 62.4% of the 229 spills reported for April 2025, and are double the 72 spills Noble Energy reported in January 2025.
Here’s the breakdown by facility type over the same period:
| Facility Type | January 2025 | February 2025 | March 2025 | April 2025 | Total YTD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flowline System | 43 | 40 | 80 | 118 | 281 |
| Well | 51 | 48 | 52 | 62 | 213 |
| Tank Battery | 52 | 42 | 43 | 59 | 196 |
| (blank) | 33 | 8 | 17 | 18 | 76 |
| Pipeline | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 9 |
| Produced Water Transfer System | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| Off-Location Flowline | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 |
| Pit | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Gas Gathering Pipeline System | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Gas Processing Plant | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Gas Compressor Station | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Crude Oil Transfer Line | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
We’ll dig into the more detailed statistics in the monthly spill data from the full spill reports when they’re available, which unfortunately, won’t be for another month or two (we don’t even have complete March data yet).