A natural gas-rich drilling plan across 35,000 acres of Colorado’s Western Slope has been vacated by a federal court, which found that Department of Interior officials had not adequately taken into account the environmental risks.

Colorado Production

U.S. District Court Judge Marcia Krieger of the District of Colorado ordered the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to revise the North Fork Mancos Master Development Plan (No. 21-cv-01268-MSK). 

Denver-based Gunnison Energy LLC years ago requested permission to drill and complete up to 35 horizontal wells from four well pads and one existing pad in the Mancos formation. The producer also planned to construct roads and natural gas gathering pipelines in Gunnison and Delta counties. 

The long-term...