Colo. Appellate Court Finds Deadline Defined by Date of 'Fracking'

DENVER - The Colorado Court of Appeals has resolved a lease termination dispute by ruling that "completion" of a gas well occurred on the day that hydraulic fracturing was completed, not when the well drilling equipment was removed. Bledsoe Land Co., et al. v. Forest Oil Corp., et al., No. 09CA2807 (Colo. Ct. App.).

The Court of Appeals overturned a lower court order that a lease had terminated for non-production, finding in its June 23 opinion that Forest Oil Corp. had met a 180-day deadline for beginning operations on a new well after abandoning another.

Lucile Bledsoe and other family …