Boulder County v. Crestone Peak: The Colorado Supreme Court Dives Into Oil & Gas Law

Live Webinar   |   Tuesday, December 19, 2023
9:00 – 10:30 am PST, 10:00 – 11:30 am MST, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm CST, 12:00 – 1:30 pm EST

Registration closes at 12:00 pm MST on December 18, 2023

Boulder County v. Crestone Peak: The Colorado Supreme Court Dives Into Oil & Gas Law 

On November 20, the Colorado Supreme Court, in the case of Board of County Commissioners of Boulder County v. Crestone Peak Resources Operating LLC, issued one of the most important decisions in recent years for Colorado oil and gas law. In a series of transactions, Boulder County acquired certain mineral rights covered by pre-existing oil and gas leases held by Crestone Peak. For a four-month period in 2014, the wells under the leases were shut-in because the gas pipeline required repairs. Boulder County claimed the leases terminated for lack of production and filed suit.

This webinar, co-sponsored by The Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law and the Colorado Bar Association Natural Resources and Energy Law Section, will explore the issues in the case and the court’s holdings from the varying perspectives of our panelists, including: the meaning of the term “production” in the habendum clause of an oil and gas lease, the temporary cessation of production doctrine, express cessation of production clauses and when they should override the temporary cessation of production doctrine, shut-in royalty clauses, whether an oil and gas lease is interpreted as a contract or a conveyance, and how the clauses at issue were interpreted. 

GEOFFREY STORM, Moderator, Associate General Counsel, Civitas Resources, Chair, Colorado Bar Association Natural Resources
and Energy Law Section Council, Denver, CO 
GREGOR MACGREGOR, Environmental & Natural Resources Policy Specialization Lead, Masters of the Environment,
University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO
JOEL S. NECKERS, Partner, Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell LLP, Denver, CO
TARA K. RIGHETTI, Occidental Chair in Energy and Environmental Policies and School of Energy Resources Professor of Law,
University of Wyoming College of Law, Laramie, WY