{"id":122354,"date":"2026-02-24T20:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/122354\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:07:12","slug":"a-civitas-offer-brings-eries-mineral-rights-into-the-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/122354\/","title":{"rendered":"A Civitas Offer Brings Erie\u2019s Mineral Rights Into the Spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

A brief discussion at Erie\u2019s Dec. 16 Town Council meeting revealed what had previously been kept behind closed doors: Civitas Resources has made an offer to buy Erie\u2019s mineral rights. This revelation immediately raised concerns about transparency and the town\u2019s direction on oil and gas issues.\n<\/p>\n

The comment surfaced as Mayor Andrew Moore introduced a contract <\/a>with Alameda Mineral Advisors<\/a> to assess the value of the town\u2019s mineral holdings. Moore described the consulting work as a step to better understand the town\u2019s assets. The explanation, however, included a significant detail.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will give us information on what those are worth,\u201d Moore said from the dais. \u201cCivitas has given us an offer, we\u2019re not sure that offer is market-competitive. If nothing else, this will give us that information. This does not approve anything, it doesn\u2019t spend any money, it simply gives us information. Then we can go back and ask the question, \u2018Is there enough here? Is this worth it?\u2019\u201d\n<\/p>\n

That statement marked the first time the public learned that Civitas \u2014 operator of the widely opposed Draco Pad<\/a> oil and gas project \u2014 had approached the town about purchasing its mineral rights. The matter had previously been discussed only in Executive Session.\n<\/p>\n

Councilmember Dan Hoback said the lack of public discussion is central to the concern.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the details, all of the pros and cons, are happening behind closed doors,\u201d Hoback said. \u201cIf this makes it to a council vote, that will be the first the public is hearing of it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The announcement also landed in a charged political climate. Residents have long and vocally opposed expanding oil and gas activity, especially around the Draco Pad. Sustainability consistently ranks as one of the community\u2019s top priorities, Hoback noted.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our survey, people ranked sustainability as a number one issue they want to focus on, and we\u2019re going against that,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"\n<\/p>\n

A potential sale of the town\u2019s mineral rights could carry consequences for nearby property owners. Under Colorado law, a sale could enable pooling, a practice that allows an operator to combine adjacent mineral interests into a single unit for development.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOne consequence is that if the deal goes through, Civitas could do something called pooling, where surrounding mineral rights are turned over to them and lumped together, which takes that choice away from residents,\u201d Hoback said.\n<\/p>\n

He added that timing may also be a factor.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cMayor Moore is under a time crunch because Civitas Resources just got bought by SM Energy<\/a>, which means that there\u2019s limited time for Draco to drill and limited time to close a deal,\u201d Hoback said.\n<\/p>\n

For many residents already skeptical of oil and gas activity, the thought of a fast-moving, privately negotiated deal could deepen that skepticism.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven how opposed people were to Draco,\u201d Hoback said, \u201cthis will definitely lead to a concerning lack of trust from the residents.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

His assessment of the situation was blunt: \u201cWe\u2019re dancing with the devil.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A brief discussion at Erie\u2019s Dec. 16 Town Council meeting revealed what had previously been kept behind closed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4877,6836,6837,57515,1676,22628,6833,57516,6838,1681,136,138,137,1677,7680,55097,297,57520,57514,27784,6820,6835,17064,25874,57517,57519,57518,5858,8432,976,4753,526,7608],"class_list":{"0":"post-122354","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-erie","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-boulder","10":"tag-business-directory","11":"tag-civitas","12":"tag-colorado","13":"tag-deal","14":"tag-denver","15":"tag-draco","16":"tag-east-county","17":"tag-entertainment","18":"tag-erie","19":"tag-erie-headlines","20":"tag-erie-news","21":"tag-front-range","22":"tag-gas","23":"tag-hoback","24":"tag-information","25":"tag-limited","26":"tag-mineral","27":"tag-moore","28":"tag-nbsp","29":"tag-north-metro","30":"tag-offer","31":"tag-oil","32":"tag-opposed","33":"tag-pad","34":"tag-pooling","35":"tag-public","36":"tag-residents","37":"tag-restaurant","38":"tag-rights","39":"tag-time","40":"tag-town"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}