2025 was another record year for Colorado’s oil and gas industry. While you were streaming your favorite songs, the industry was busy breaking records of its own. They drilled hundreds of new wells, pumped billions of gallons of water underground, and racked up oil spills across the state. While the industry celebrated record production, communities were left dealing with contaminated water, toxic air, and an uncertain future. Here’s your Oil & Gas Wrapped 2025.
Note: These statistics are current as of December 12, 2025, and are sourced from EcoCarto’s Energy Insights.
Table of Contents
651 New Wells Drilled
Colorado’s oil and gas drilling activity is dominated by Weld County, which consistently accounts for about 75% of all new wells drilled in the state. After peaking in 2017 with 1,796 wells spud, drilling dropped sharply as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and has only partially recovered since.
10.5 Billion Gallons of Water Consumed
Until 2020, water consumption for fracking in Colorado mirrored the drilling boom-bust cycle, peaking at 13.7 billion gallons of water consumed in 2018. Modern wells now use 4x more water than wells fracked 10 years ago, even though median wellbore lengths have not increased significantly in the last 5 years.
3,720,000 Tons of Sand Consumed
The consumption of fracking sand (also known as proppant) closely mirrors the quantities of water used by hydraulic fracturing in the last 10 years, with modern wells now using slightly more sand per well than before. Due to differences in the geologic composition of the oil-rich shale layers in the Denver-Julesburg basin, relatively more sand is used per well in Weld County as compared to the rest of Colorado.
2,110 Oil Spills
2025 was another record year for oil spills, driven by an increase in reported spills in Weld County. What’s driving this surge? In 2021, the ECMC Rule 900 Series criteria for reporting spills detailed in section 912.b.(1) expanded significantly (see this post for details), and now include a required environmental investigation for each facility closure. Let’s examine well plugging and abandonment numbers over the same period to see how they compare:
A statistical analysis of the monthly data from January 2021 through August 2025 (the last month for which full well abandonment data is available at the ECMC) shows a medium positive statistically-significant correlation between the number of oil spills and plugged wells. The conclusion: operators are finding oil spills only when they finally reclaim oil & gas sites.
The Bishop Spill Was A Gusher!
In the evening of April 6, 2025, an equipment failure caused one of the Bishop A07 wells to eject oil, methane, and water into the surrounding neighborhood for 5 days before the well was brought under control. This was the worst oil spill in Colorado history; as of the latest Form 27 Site Investigation and Remediation Plan document filed on November 20, 2025, Chevron has removed:
- 76,941 cubic yards of contaminated soil, which would fill over 7,600 dump truck loads.
- 518,799 barrels of contaminated water and liquid waste, which would fill about 33 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Chevron estimates it will “take up to five years of remediation to clean up this release.” Additional information about the spill and its remediation can be found at Weld County’s Public Information Office website.
Your Top Spillers
Operator Spill Activity and Historical Spill Ratio, 2025
| Operator | Historical Spills | Recent Spills | % of All Spills | Wells Plugged | Historical Spills per Well Plugged |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Noble Energy Inc | 807 | 26 | 41.01 | 361 | 2.24 |
| Kerr McGee Oil & Gas Onshore LP | 404 | 33 | 21.52 | 269 | 1.50 |
| PDC Energy Inc | 207 | 26 | 11.47 | 168 | 1.23 |
| Crestone Peak Resources Operating LLC | 82 | 4 | 4.23 | 134 | 0.61 |
| QB Energy Operating LLC | 8 | 40 | 2.36 | 0 | – |
| Bonanza Creek Energy Operating Company LLC | 37 | 5 | 2.07 | 29 | 1.28 |
| Extraction Oil & Gas Inc | 23 | 3 | 1.28 | 28 | 0.82 |
| Bison IV Operating LLC | 9 | 13 | 1.08 | 5 | 1.80 |
| KP Kauffman Company Inc | 8 | 12 | 0.98 | 17 | 0.47 |
| Highpoint Operating Corporation | 11 | 5 | 0.79 | 6 | 1.83 |
| Wesco Operating Inc | 13 | 1 | 0.69 | 1 | 13.00 |
| DCP Operating Company LP | 3 | 11 | 0.69 | 0 | – |
| TEP Rocky Mountain LLC | 0 | 12 | 0.59 | 0 | – |
| Magpie Operating Inc | 10 | 1 | 0.54 | 0 | – |
| Caerus Piceance LLC | 7 | 4 | 0.54 | 0 | – |
| Evergreen Natural Resources LLC | 2 | 8 | 0.49 | 0 | – |
| Chevron USA Inc | 9 | 0 | 0.44 | 0 | – |
| Citation Oil & Gas Corp | 7 | 2 | 0.44 | 0 | – |
| Painted Pegasus Petroleum LLC | 1 | 8 | 0.44 | 4 | 0.25 |
| Laramie Energy LLC | 0 | 9 | 0.44 | 0 | – |
| All Other Operators | 72 | 88 | 7.88 | 38 | 1.89 |
These data show that oil spills are overwhelmingly discovered during facility closure activities, where wells are plugged and abandoned, flowlines and tank batteries are removed, and the site is returned (as best as possible) to its former condition.
Note that Noble Energy and PDC Energy are both subsidiaries of Chevron, and Bonanza Creek, Crestone Peak Resources and Extraction are subsidiaries of Civitas. This underscores the overwhelming contribution to the number of reported spills by a very small number of operators.
Unknown Impact for 91.4% of Historical Releases
There’s lots to discuss regarding the substantial growth in reported historical releases since the 2021 reporting requirement changes, especially as we try to characterize impact of these spills by analyzing the volumes of oil, condensate, and produced water that leak into the soil. Unfortunately, 77% of all reported spills, and 91.4% of historical releases report an “Unknown” quantity for these metrics, hampering further analysis. We continue to work to address this data gap.
Now What?
Now that you’ve seen the numbers that quantify the impacts of oil & gas extraction in Colorado, what can we do about it all?
Quick and Easy: Follow and Support Local Organizations
The following organizations are part of a coalition called Safe and Healthy Colorado. Give them a follow on Instagram and their other social media platforms:
- Safe & Healthy Colorado: https://www.instagram.com/safehealthyco/
- 350 Colorado: https://www.instagram.com/350colorado/
- Climate Reality Project: https://www.instagram.com/climaterealityden
- Colorado Coalition for a Livable Climate: https://www.instagram.com/CCLC350
- Colorado Rising: https://www.instagram.com/coloradorising/
- EcoCarto: https://www.instagram.com/ecocarto/
- Erie Protectors: https://www.instagram.com/erieprotectors
- Fort Collins Sustainability Group: https://www.instagram.com/fortcollinssustainabilitygroup/
- Mountain Mamas: https://www.instagram.com/comtnmamas/
- PSR Colorado: https://www.instagram.com/psr_colorado/
- Save The Aurora Reservoir: https://www.instagram.com/savetheaurorareservoir/
- Sunrise Movement Colorado: https://www.instagram.com/sunrisemvmtco
- Sustainable Resilient Longmont: https://www.instagram.com/srlongmont
- Womxn From The Mountain: https://www.instagram.com/womxnfromthemountain/
Quick and Easy: Sign the Open Letter of Support
Visit Safe & Healthy Colorado and sign the open letter of support to stop the expansion of fracking and for a just and equitable transition to a renewables future.
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