Erie Mayor Andrew Moore said he received the lease offer letter via email Aug. 26 but did not see it until Aug. 28. He forwarded the offer to town staff, who said there was not enough time for the Town Council to consider it before SM Energy\u2019s provided deadline.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was Wednesday when that lease came in \u2014 I didn\u2019t see it until Friday,\u201d Moore said. \u201cWhy it was sent to me, I don\u2019t know. I\u2019ve never gotten an email from SM Energy directly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moore on Tuesday evening added he is \u201cnot anticipating\u201d any more lease offers from the company now that the town\u2019s unleased mineral rights are excluded from the new Draco map.\n<\/p>\n
The lease offer<\/a> sent last week, Moore said, did not compare with the canceled purchase agreement<\/a>, which would have brought the town $4.5 million in cash and 160 acres of land from SM Energy, as well as assurances from the company that it would plug and abandon 17 existing oil and gas wells within Erie over time.\n<\/p>\n \u201cCompared to the deal we had, it was nothing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Leased versus unleased mineral rights<\/p>\n If the purchase deal had gone through, SM Energy would have acquired about 182 acres of Erie\u2019s mineral rights, over half of which are unleased, and the rest had already been leased to the company over a decade ago, according to town staff.<\/p>\n Leased mineral rights are those under a contract with an energy or mining company, while unleased mineral rights are not under such an agreement and are retained by the owner.<\/p>\n A recently enacted state law allows local governments to prevent oil and gas operators from forcibly accessing their unleased minerals. SM Energy\u2019s new drilling plan for the Draco Pad, submitted to the Colorado Energy & Carbon Management Commission on Aug. 28, now excludes Erie\u2019s unleased minerals that would have been part of the purchase agreement.<\/p>\n The new drilling plan still includes Erie-owned minerals that are leased.<\/p>\n David Frank, Erie\u2019s environmental services director, on Tuesday said the amount of revenue the town could receive from its leased minerals within the updated drilling plan for Draco would be \u201creally speculative, because oil prices are variable.\u201d<\/p>\n The new drilling map removes about 1,000 acres from the western side of the previous drilling area in Boulder County. It adds a second area for production that is occupied by the Front Range Landfill, along with an adjacent parcel to the southeast.\n<\/p>\n Though some of the areas in the plan\u00a0have shifted, the new map proposes 26 wells, unchanged from the number of wells included in the previous plan for Draco.<\/p>\n Areas no longer within the Draco drilling map include Prince Creek Estates, Baxter Farm, Candlelight Estates, Candlelight Ridge and Orchard Glen, as well as portions of Flatiron Meadows and Canyon Creek.\n<\/p>\n Erie\u2019s status in state hearings<\/p>\n After the purchase agreement collapsed last month, Erie petitioned the state commission for \u201caffected person\u201d status, which would allow the town to participate in proceedings over the Draco Pad.<\/p>\n But SM Energy has since submitted a new map with a redrawn drilling plan, so hearings previously scheduled for September and October will be rescheduled, and Erie would have to file a new petition for \u201caffected person\u201d status.<\/p>\n It is not guaranteed that request will be granted.<\/p>\n John Brown, a Colorado ECMC spokesperson, said whether a person or entity qualifies as an affected person depends on each specific application, the \u201cconfiguration of the proposed drilling units and that entity\u2019s relationship to those units.\u201d<\/p>\n Any petition from Erie for affected person status will be evaluated under the factors set forth by the ECMC\u2019s rules, Brown said in an email.<\/p>\n \u201cECMC cannot prejudge how those factors would apply before a petition is filed and reviewed,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788417889_120_Screenshot-2026-09-02-101928.png\")
The previous Draco drilling area filed with the state was shown in a June presentation to the Erie Town Council. (Courtesy image \/ Town of Erie)
\n![\"Erie's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788417890_984_Screenshot-2026-09-02-101943.png\")
Erie’s leased minerals within a Draco drilling map are marked in blue, and the town’s unleased minerals are marked in orange, in a June presentation to the Town Council. (Courtesy image \/ Town of Erie)
\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788417891_616_Screenshot-2026-09-02-101723.png\")
A new drilling map for the Draco Pad removes about 1,000 acres from the western side of the previous drilling area. The areas outlined in yellow and blue both make up the new proposed drilling area. The intersection of Erie Parkway and County Line Road is pointed to with a purple arrow in the upper left part of the image. (Courtesy image \/ Colorado Energy & Carbon Management Commission)<\/p>\n