{"id":224200,"date":"2026-06-21T03:43:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T03:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/224200\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T03:43:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T03:43:15","slug":"erie-town-council-could-reverse-its-vote-on-deal-tied-to-draco-oil-and-gas-project-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/224200\/","title":{"rendered":"Erie Town Council could reverse its vote on deal tied to Draco oil and gas project"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a potential deal with oil and gas operator SM Energy to hand over underground, town-owned mineral rights in the drilling area for the company\u2019s planned Draco Pad project failed on a split 3-3 vote<\/a> of the Erie Town Council, the council is now set to reconsider the proposed deal on Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n

The council will take comments from the public and potentially hold a new vote during the meeting, according to a town news release Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

The potential for the reversal of Erie\u2019s decision comes after a council member who had voted against the deal asked that town leaders reconsider.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to the Town Council\u2019s adopted Rules of Order and Procedure (Section 7.4(f)) any Council Member who voted on the prevailing side of an issue may call to have reconsideration of that item at the next Regular or Special Meeting,\u201d the town\u2019s news release said. \u201cCouncil Member Brian O\u2019Connor has asked for Ordinance No. 028-2026 on the sale of mineral rights to be reconsidered at the Council\u2019s Regular Meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The meeting<\/a> is slated for Tuesday evening. Town leaders are set to consider the exact agreement and contract from the previous week, according to town spokesperson Gabi Rae.<\/p>\n

Details of Draco and deal<\/p>\n

A plan for the Draco Pad was approved in March 2025 by the Colorado Energy & Carbon Management Commission, designed to include 26 wells drilled from a pad in unincorporated Weld County, before extending over 7,000 feet underground, turning horizontally and running west for more than 4 miles beneath portions of Erie and unincorporated Boulder County.<\/p>\n

The drilling area for Draco is proposed to sit northwest of the Garfield Road and County Road 7 intersection.<\/p>\n

But before drilling can begin, SM Energy must demonstrate it has access to the underground mineral resources included within the approved plan to secure a drilling permit from the commission.<\/p>\n

The town has said it was first approached in 2025 by Civitas Resources \u2014 which earlier this year merged with SM Energy Company \u2014 about acquiring Erie\u2019s mineral rights within the proposed drilling area for Draco. Mineral rights allow their owners to access and extract underground resources or lease and sell that access.<\/p>\n

If the potential deal goes forward, SM Energy would acquire an amount of the town\u2019s unleased mineral rights within Draco\u2019s roughly 4,000-acre planned drilling area. The town has said the amount is about 180 acres of the town\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

In return, Erie could receive more than $21 million in combined cash and future revenue, including a $4.5 million cash payment and 3% of production revenue for the life of the Draco project; Erie officials had estimated that revenue share could exceed $17 million over the next 20 years or more, according to earlier town information.<\/p>\n

The deal would also see Erie take ownership of three parcels of land totaling about 160 acres on County Line Road, according to earlier town information.<\/p>\n

Whether Erie OKs the proposed deal or not, Draco is expected to still move forward. But the failure of the potential deal to win a council vote would mean the project has to be adjusted to avoid the town\u2019s minerals, according to a town news release Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

\u2018Does not come as a great surprise\u2019
\nThat night, the council took a 3-3 vote, with Erie Mayor Andrew Moore, Mayor Pro Tem Brandon Bell and Councilmember John Mortellaro voting in favor of the agreement.<\/p>\n

Councilmembers Emily Baer, Brian O\u2019Connor and Anil Pesaramelli voted against, while Councilmember Dan Hoback was absent from Tuesday night\u2019s meeting for, he said, a family obligation.<\/p>\n

In a statement to the Daily Camera about the motion to reconsider the council\u2019s decision, Hoback said: \u201cWhile disappointing, it does not come as a great surprise. The \u2026 process to this point has been conducted under a dark shadow of misinformation, deception and secrecy. Town residents deserve better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Camera has reached out to O\u2019Connor for comment about the move to reconsider.<\/p>\n

The potential deal is a highly watched issue in Erie. Residents have asked the state to step in on the potential sale, after questions about the deal\u2019s process have continued.<\/p>\n

A letter signed by over 100 Erie residents, according to the letter, and addressed to Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, said the situation is<\/a>\u00a0a \u201clegal and ethical matter where there is no recourse for these issues at the Town level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are reaching out to you for State assistance to investigate and hopefully resolve these matters on behalf of residents of the Town of Erie,\u201d the letter, dated June 11, adds.<\/p>\n

After the Camera reached out with questions about the letter, Lawrence Pacheco, spokesperson for the state Attorney General\u2019s Office, did not offer specific comments.\n<\/p>\n

This story may be updated with more details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a potential deal with oil and gas operator SM Energy to hand over underground, town-owned mineral rights…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1675,1676,136,138,137,1677,241,139,1680],"class_list":["post-224200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-boulder-county","tag-colorado","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-front-range","tag-latest-headlines","tag-news","tag-weld-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224200","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=224200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}