No. 8 of ten · API state code 05
Colorado: the ECMC.
Energy and Carbon Management Commission — the agency that decides where wells go in Colorado. Here is what it holds, what it doesn't, and the one document worth your afternoon.
The agency
Where it came from
Colorado's agency has changed both its name and its purpose twice in five years. Senate Bill 19-181 changed its mission from fostering oil and gas to regulating it protectively, and Senate Bill 23-285 renamed it the Energy and Carbon Management Commission effective 1 July 2023, reflecting new authority over carbon capture, deep geothermal and underground gas storage. If you are searching for old records, search for COGCC as well.
- Agency
- Energy and Carbon Management Commission
- Sits within
- Division of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources
- Also worth knowing
- Formerly the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) until 2023
- Website
- ecmc.colorado.gov
- Main plays
- Denver-Julesburg · Niobrara · Piceance · San Juan
- API state code
- 05 — every well number in the state starts with it
- Pooling / unitization
- Statutory pooling
- Ad valorem on minerals
- Ad valorem: yes — confirm the current treatment locally
- Records access
- Free
- Deeds & leases at
- County Clerk and Recorder
- Production rank
- No. 8 of the ten, at roughly 471 MMBOE a year (EIA, 2023, 6:1)
Agency names, form numbers, websites and fees change. Confirm anything you intend to rely on against the agency's own site.
If you only do one thing
The document to pull
Colorado · start here
The COGIS well record and the drilling and spacing unit order
COGIS is the central database everything else in Colorado hangs off. The well record gets you the operator, status, location and production; the spacing unit order tells you which tracts share that well and on what basis.
- Start in COGIS — search by well name, API number, operator or location. The Daily Activity Dashboard is an easier front door if COGIS feels dense.
- Open the well record and note the API number, operator and status.
- Use Imaged Document Search to pull the actual filed documents for that well.
- Find the drilling and spacing unit order covering your tract. Colorado allows statutory pooling, so an unleased owner can be pooled into a unit.
- For ownership, use the ECMC's own mineral ownership records page, which points you to the right county clerk and recorder — ECMC does not hold title records.
Worth knowing
What else this agency publishes
Named here rather than linked directly, because deep links into state records systems break more often than the systems do. Search the name from ecmc.colorado.gov.
Where it differs from Texas
Not the same as the RRC
Two renamings in five years mean Colorado's older records are filed under an agency name that no longer exists. Always search COGCC as well as ECMC.
Before you start
Two things to have in hand
Your legal description
Every search on Colorado's system wants to know where, and none of them accept a street address as the real answer. Get the section, township and range — or the survey and abstract — off your deed or an old check stub before you open the website. Without it you are guessing.
The API number, once you find it
Every Colorado well number begins 05. Once you have a well's full API number, write it down: it is the key that works in the state system, in FracFocus, and in every commercial database — and it never changes. Take one apart if you have not seen the structure before.
The thing to remember
The ECMC holds the well and the unit. It does not hold your ownership. Deeds, leases, probates and the chain of title live with the county clerk and recorder in the county where the minerals are — and no state oil and gas agency in the country can tell you what you own.