State Regulators Announce Proposed Penalties to Chevron for Bishop Well Control Incident

Commission Review of Enforcement Action to Occur at Public Hearing on March 18

DENVER, (CO) - The Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC) is the regulatory authority overseeing Noble/Chevron’s environmental remediation of the Bishop incident in Galeton, CO, and is the state agency with statutory authority to take enforcement action related to violation of ECMC’s regulations. Today ECMC posted the proposed penalties — called an Administrative Order of Consent (AOC) — following a ten month enforcement investigation. ECMC will provide an update about the remediation and the Commission will review the AOC at a public hearing on Wednesday, March 18, 2026, at 9:00 am. A recording of the hearing will be posted online shortly after it concludes.

What: Public hearing regarding the Bishop Well Incident
When: Wednesday, March 18, 2026, at 9:00 am
Where: virtual over Zoom

What happened?

On 4/6/25 a well control incident occurred at the Noble/Chevron Bishop A07-01 pad. Noble Energy, Inc., is a subsidy of Chevron. The ECMC-issued location ID is 483510 (Well API# 05-123-52071). There was a failure of the designed well barriers and a loss of control over the pressure within the wellbore, resulting in an uncontrolled flow — called a blowout — of fluids. During the blowout, wellbore fluids and fluids native to the formation, such as condensate and crude oil, emitted.

The Unified Incident Command team, composed of Weld County first responders, Galeton Fire Protection, Chevron, and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), oversaw the initial emergency response to the incident. Contractors working for Noble/Chevron successfully stopped fluid flow from the well on 4/10/25. On 4/11/25 the response team declared the well control incident successfully secured; secure is defined as a confidence in the containment.

The declaration returned the location (483510), the Bishop Well, and the spill of exploration and production waste to the jurisdiction of ECMC in accordance with the state’s Energy and Carbon Management Act because ECMC is the agency with statutory authority to regulate oil and gas operations and take enforcement action in the event of operator non-compliance with State rules.

What is the status of remediation, as of February 2026?

Remediation for the Bishop incident is a multi-step, multi-faceted process. The operator, Noble/Chevron, is responsible for all clean up activities. That work is regulated and enforced by ECMC. ECMC holds operators accountable to the State of Colorado’s strict and protective remediation standards.

Remediation is anticipated to be completed by spring 2030. In accordance with state rules, Noble/Chevron filed an Environmental Sampling and Analysis Plan (ESAP) that ECMC expert staff approved and posted on 4/17/25. An ESAP is a scientific and technical plan for the collection and chemical analysis of environmental samples for surface water, groundwater, and soil sampling prepared specific to this incident. On 5/1/25 ECMC approved Noble/Chevron’s initial Investigation/Remediation Workplan. The Workplan describes the ways in which impacts from the incident will be remediated and how the remediation will be monitored and validated. Within the first two months of the incident, Chevron submitted more than 1,000 analytical reports to ECMC, documenting thousands of sample points and analyses. These detailed reports are publicly available.

On 5/31/25, Noble/Chevron submitted a map of parcels of land within 1.5 miles of the Bishop well. Each parcel has been assigned a unique identification number. In total, there are 317 individual parcels. Each parcel will be investigated and remediated as necessary to achieve compliance with ECMC’s Table 915-1, a table that outlines chemicals of concern and acceptable thresholds for the presence of those chemicals. Table 915-1 includes several “classes” of contaminants associated with waste from oil and gas operations: hydrocarbons (organics), metals (inorganics), and soil suitability for reclamation parameters. The table includes parameters for both soil contamination and for groundwater impacts. The table also includes protective standards for residential situations and situations where groundwater may be present or at risk.

More information about Table 915-1 and the parcels assigned to the Bishop remediation projects are publicly available.

The hearing on 3/18/26 will describe ECMC’s oversight of the operator’s remediation efforts, to date, in more detail. As of February 2026, six of the 317 parcels have been remediated to ECMC’s standards and received ‘closed’ status, i.e. ECMC has determined that the remediation is compliant with state standards. ECMC anticipates that Chevron will have submitted remediation closure forms for two hundred or more parcels by June 2026. (Note: more information describing this expectation is described below in the enforcement section.)

What is the status of enforcement action?

ECMC is the state agency with regulatory authority to investigate compliance with ECMC regulations associated with the Bishop Well incident. On 6/26/2025, ECMC issued a Notice of Alleged Violation (NOAV) to Noble Energy, Inc., regarding the loss of well control at the Bishop Well. View the NOAV. ECMC issues NOAVs when there is reasonable cause to believe that a violation of any Commission rule, order, or permit has occurred.

The issuance of a NOAV commences an administrative enforcement action. ECMC may impose penalties at the conclusion of an enforcement action and/or require appropriate corrective actions. ECMC alleged in the NOAV that the incident violated six Rules:

After ten months of investigation as well as settlement negotiations with the operator, today (2/23/26) ECMC filed an application for hearing and posted a proposed Administrative Order by Consent (AOC). This AOC is a legally binding agreement between ECMC and Noble to resolve the NOAV. It must be approved by the Commission to go into effect. In plain language, an AOC is a proposed resolution for alleged violations; an AOC requires a review and vote by the Commission. View the AOC between ECMC and Noble on ECMC’s efiling system: the relevant docket number is 260200039. The Commission will review and likely vote on the AOC at the 3/18/26 hearing.

In summary, Noble agreed to a penalty for all violations listed in the NOAV as well as an additional penalty associated with a failure to comply with a remediation condition of approval. The penalties associated with rule violations are established by three factors: each rule series, the impact associated with the violation, and the duration of the violation. The rules bind ECMC’s penalty authority, and ECMC rules are the strongest and most stringent oil and gas rules in the nation. In this case, ECMC is imposing a penalty of $1,705,000. The AOC details the breakdown of the penalties.

Operators typically receive a discount for agreeing to a settlement. Here, ECMC agreed to a 10 percent discount. The vast majority of enforcement actions conclude in settlement to avoid lengthy and expensive litigation. In this case, the total fee to be paid by Noble is $1,534,500. Penalties collected by ECMC fund agency operations; alternatively the AOC also allows Noble to use a portion of what would have been paid to ECMC to fund public projects without reducing the total amount of the penalty.

The penalty imposed by ECMC reflects one component of Noble’s expenses pertaining to the incident. Notably, the operator is also responsible for all costs associated with remediation, in addition to any penalty imposed by ECMC. As described above, ECMC approves Noble’s remediation work plans and ultimately determines if remediation has satisfactorily met state standards. That said, ECMC has no information regarding the operator's remediation expenses.

As described above, there are a total of 317 individual parcels that require remediation. As of February 2026, six have been remediated to ECMC’s standards. Notably, the AOC also requires Noble to submit documentation to ECMC for the remediation closure of no fewer than 100 parcels by April 1, 2026, and an additional 100 by June 1, 2026. ECMC, in turn, is responsible for reviewing those remediated sites for compliance with state standards. If the 200 parcels are not yet ready for remediation closure, the operator must submit extension requests to ECMC.

Additionally, individual parties who may have experienced damages as a result of the incident may engage in civil lawsuits with the operator; ECMC has no information about those matters nor is ECMC party to those claims.

Also, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) performed its own independent investigation of the incident; ECMC cannot comment on the status of that investigation or any potential penalties.

Finally, the Attorney General, the Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), and the Executive Director of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) (or their delegates) serve as Colorado’s Natural Resource Damages Trustees (NRD Trustees). These Trustees are responsible for acting on behalf of the public when Colorado’s natural resources are injured or destroyed as a result of an oil spill or release of hazardous substances. NRD is a distinct and separate body from ECMC, and its process is separate from ECMC’s enforcement process.

NRD is investigating the Bishop incident. Colorado’s NRD Trustees are collecting data and conducting a pre-assessment to determine whether any natural resource injuries may have occurred as part of the Bishop incident. If it is discovered that natural resource damages have occurred, the NRD Trustees may pursue a claim. Any settlement reached with the NRD Trustees would be in addition to penalties imposed by ECMC. More information about the State’s NRD program is available here and summarized below:

When hazardous substances or oil are released into the environment, they can create risks to human health and injure or destroy natural resources. When contamination occurs that creates risks to human health and damages the environment there are two distinct processes to address the contamination — cleanup and restoration — each with independent legal authority and purposes. During the cleanup process responsible parties must clean up the contamination so that it no longer presents unacceptable risks to human health. The purpose of the cleanup process is to mitigate risks to human health, therefore, the cleanup process may or may not restore the environment to its pre-release condition. In cases where the cleanup does not restore the environment to its pre-release condition, or where the contamination caused interim or residual injuries, the NRD Trustees have the authority to require responsible parties to restore the environment to its pre-release condition.

In such instances, the State may conduct an assessment, or valuation, of the “damage” represented by the injury or destruction of natural resources to determine what natural resources have been injured; to assess the costs of restoring, replacing or acquiring the equivalent of the injured resources and their services; and to seek compensation from responsible parties. The compensation the State receives from this process is then used to restore, replace, rehabilitate or acquire the equivalent of the injured natural resources at no expense to the citizens of Colorado.

In summary, there are numerous ways in which Noble is held accountable for the consequences of the incident that are in addition to the penalties imposed by ECMC.

What likely will happen at the hearing on 3/18/26?

Members of the public are welcome to attend the virtual, public hearing on 3/18/26. The agenda and zoom details will be posted online. The portion of the hearing devoted to Bishop likely will cover two topics: remediation and enforcement. For enforcement, the Commissioners will review and deliberate on the AOC followed by a vote. One of three outcomes can occur: the Commission can approve, continue the matter with direction to the parties, or deny the AOC.

Members of the public who wish to provide oral comment at any hearing are welcome to do so but must sign-up in advance.

All hearings are recorded. Recordings are posted to ECMC’s Youtube Channel shortly after the hearing adjourns.

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.