ECMC pauses GMT’s 'Gorge' OGDP to seek fuller electrification and timing analysis

The Energy and Carbon Management Commission on March 25 continued GMT Exploration’s Gorge oil-and-gas development plan to allow the applicant to provide additional documentation on electrification, timing and the commission’s practicability standard.

GMT sought approval to establish an approximately 6,394.8‑acre drilling-and-spacing unit and to develop up to 24 horizontal wells from two pads — North Rim and Black Canyon — on state surface. Counsel Jamie Jost and GMT presenters Max Blair and Andrea Gross described extensive avoidance, minimization and mitigation measures, including commitments to tier‑4‑equivalent rigs for the first occupation and electric rigs for later occupations, water‑quality monitoring wells at each pad, and other best management practices developed with CDPHE and CPW.

“Once it is constructed, we’ll have all the power need for these operations,” Max Blair said of grid service the company has requested from Xcel Energy, adding GMT has paid for design and distribution‑line upgrades but cannot control the utility’s construction timing.

Several commissioners pressed GMT for more detail about the proposed multi‑year schedule, which splits development into multiple occupations between 2026 and 2029. Commissioner Oates said the question before the commission was whether the rule’s electrification requirement was practicable in the first occupation. “I am very much struggling to find that the fact that an operator entered into a contract of their own will . . . requiring it to drill in a certain time frame to be sufficient justification,” Oates said, asking the applicant to provide a fuller practicability assessment tied to rule 3.16 and related criteria.

Commissioner Cross and others asked for clarity about whether Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) understood the current multi‑occupation schedule; counsel said GMT had exchanged emails and that CPW’s representative had acknowledged the updated schedule. Andrea Gross confirmed an email exchange with Brandon Moret of CPW that referenced the GMT schedule and received a brief acknowledgment.

GMT’s counsel offered possible conditions of approval to bridge the concerns: commit to a tier‑4‑equivalent rig for the first North Rim occupation and electric rigs for subsequent occupations, and to meet with CPW post‑decision and provide the commission a report of that consultation. The commission instead voted to continue the matter with instruction to GMT to submit an updated practicability assessment and related documentation by the close of business on the coming Friday; ECMC staff will schedule the resumed hearing no later than April 8, 2026.

The commission’s order to continue asks GMT to address the specific elements of the practicability assessment in the agency’s rules — including equipment and infrastructure availability, the projected emissions benefits of compliance, and any operational constraints — and to provide supporting correspondence (which may be submitted for in‑camera review if it contains confidential business information). The commission did not make a decision on the application and adjourned after the continuance motion carried.