Denver, CO (Apr. 15, 2025, 2 p.m.) - Yesterday the Unified Incident Command (UIC) for the well control incident at Chevron Bishop A07-01 pad demobilized. The UIC — consisting of Weld County Office of Emergency Management (OEM), Chevron, and other Incident Command partners — declared that the incident no longer requires an emergency-focused incident command. Following a failure of the designed well barriers on 4/6/2025 that caused a loss of control over the pressure within the wellbore and resulted in an uncontrolled flow — called a blowout — of fluids, contractors working for Chevron UIC secured the well and location on 4/11/2025. During the blowout, fluids, including water, oil, and gas, discharged from the well.
Following the dissolution of UIC, regulatory agencies are now managing their individual responsibilities in relation to this incident. In accordance with the Oil and Gas Conservation Act, the Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) is the state agency with statutory authority to regulate oil and gas operations, including the investigation and clean up of any oil and gas spill.
Chevron is required to investigate and clean up the impacts from this incident as it is a spill. ECMC will oversee the spill’s remediation, review and approve Chevron’s workplans, and monitor the successful implementation of the workplan. Under ECMC requirements, Chevron submitted its initial spill report and accident report. View those reports. Among other regulatory duties, ECMC will oversee the work of Chevron and their contractors and consultants; collect samples to document the environmental remediation progress; ensure that clean up meets applicable standards; coordinate with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the Weld County Department of Public Health and Environment, the US Environmental Protection Agency, and other agencies as necessary; and communicate remediation status in a transparent manner with the community.
View a detailed Q&A for information about the incident, resources for impacted residents, remediation requirements, and more.
About the ECMC
The mission of the Colorado Energy & Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) is to regulate the development and production of the natural resources of oil and gas, deep geothermal resources, the capture and sequestration of carbon, and the underground storage of natural gas in a manner that protects public health, safety, welfare, the environment and wildlife resources. Visit the ECMC website for more information.