MRP 150: Colorado's New Financial Assurance Rules with Neil Ray

In this episode, Justin and I interview Neil Ray with CAMRO. We discuss the new Colorado Oil and Gas Financial Assurance regulations that just went into effect.  If you're not familiar with what financial assurance is, it is the process of operators putting up money to ensure that the state isn't left footing the bill for plugging and abandoning wells in case the company goes out of business. This is just one part of the overarching changes to the way that oil and gas is regulated in the state of Colorado.  This topic is important because even if you don't have minerals in the state, other progressive states could adopt similar measures.  These new financial assurance rules may make it difficult for small producers to meet the requirements which is important because according to the IPAA, there are about 9,000 independent oil and natural gas producers in the US.  These are the small mom and pop operators that employ an average of just 12 people.  These companies produce 83 percent of America's oil and 90 percent of America's natural gas. Resources mentioned in this episode can be found in the show notes at mineralrightspodcast.com.