Trinidad, Aguilar, Branson: Raton Basin coalbed methane on Spanish and Mexican land grant title, where whether the coal owner or the gas owner holds the methane is a live question.
Las Animas County is Raton Basin coalbed methane, and its title is more interesting than its geology.
Production comes from coals of the Raton Formation and the underlying Vermejo, commingled in single wellbores across multiple thin, discontinuous seams. This is not a multi-bench play and a tract here does not carry repeat drilling upside. Igneous sills have intruded and destroyed seams in places, so seam presence is not uniform. Roughly 2,218 wells produce out of about 4,051 drilled, gas only, from just three producing operators, with Evergreen Natural Resources dominant. Colorado coalbed methane has fallen from roughly 59 percent of state gas production in 1998 to about 11 percent by 2020.
The title question is where the real money is. Nineteenth century Spanish and Mexican land grant chains, including the Vigil and St. Vrain grant, underlie much of the county, and the Colorado Fuel and Iron coal mining era produced extensive severances phrased as coal and other minerals. Whether coalbed methane belongs to the coal estate or the oil and gas estate therefore turns on your specific chain. The controlling authority is Amoco Production Co. v. Southern Ute Indian Tribe, in which the United States Supreme Court held in 1999 that coal reserved under the 1909 and 1910 Coal Lands Acts does not include coalbed methane. That case arose from Colorado.
The good news for a buyer and a seller alike is that Las Animas is predominantly fee, with large private ranch holdings, which is unusual for a western Colorado county.
Produced water disposal and induced seismicity near Trinidad are ongoing regulatory issues. Send us the deed and we will read the chain, free.
High volatile bituminous coalbed methane. First wells drilled in 1982, with Spanish Peak Field discovered in 1993.
The underlying coal interval, commingled with the Raton in most wellbores.
Minor conventional production.
Wherever your tract sits in Las Animas County, we will research it free and value it with the work shown.
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