Littleton, Aurora, Bennett: the growth edge of the DJ Basin, where the Lowry Ranch program runs through 2029 and state trust land complicates who owns what.
Arapahoe County is where DJ Basin development is currently expanding, and it is one of the more interesting places in Colorado to own minerals right now.
The Lowry Ranch Comprehensive Area Plan, run by SM Energy with Crestone Peak still showing as operator of record, is scheduled to drill from 2025 through 2029. Occidental has an approved Remora pad expected to drill in late 2026 and turned Indigo to production in April 2026. GMT Exploration filed Stash horizontal permits in December 2025. Roughly 254 wells produce out of about 1,700 drilled, and permit flow is live.
Before any of that matters to your tract, screen for state trust land. The Lowry Ranch is Colorado State Land Board trust acreage, visible in well names like State Handies and State Wetterhorn, and those minerals are state owned and cannot be bought. That determination comes first and we make it free.
The development itself is the same multi-bench Niobrara and Codell architecture as Adams County, which means the same valuation problem: an offer based on your current check counts none of the undrilled benches. We count them explicitly and show you the probability we used.
Arapahoe updated its oil and gas regulations after SB 19-181 and approves most applications administratively unless elevated to Use by Special Review, which means less hearing friction than Broomfield or Boulder. And SB 19-181's 45 percent pooling joinder threshold gives unleased owners here genuine negotiating position.
Colorado follows the first marketable product rule under Rogers v. Westerman, protecting your check from marketing cost deductions. Send us a legal description.
The same multi-bench architecture as Adams County, and this is the current frontier of that development.
Co-developed beneath the Niobrara, and routinely omitted from offers.
Wherever your tract sits in Arapahoe County, we will research it free and value it with the work shown.
Free, no obligation, and no pressure. We reply within one business day, usually faster.
Prefer the phone? Call or text 918-984-1645 and you will get Stephen, the owner, not a call center. If we miss you, we text back the same day.