Bayberry OGDP
Proposed by Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas in Frederick, Colorado (Weld County)
Action Alert: ECMC Public Comment
As of today, there’s almost nothing in ECMC’s public record opposing the Bayberry OGDP. That silence matters! Commissioners weigh what’s actually been added to the public record, not what neighbors are saying informally. Please take a few minutes to change that: submit a comment through the ECMC Public Comment Portal on behalf of the impacted residents of Frederick.
A few points worth raising in your own words:
- Our NUMBER ONE most-impacted school is 3/4 of a mile away! Legacy Elementary is the most-burdened school by oil & gas in Colorado, with 48 active wells within one mile, of which 27 are low-producing and emitting disproportionate quantities of methane in to the air near the school. Enough is enough. Grand View Elementary is just over a mile away; it should be included in the ECMC’s “Area of Evaluation.”
- The area has changed since 2020. While there are no residential building units (RBUs) within 2,000 feet of the proposed pad, there are 661 RBUs within a mile, with substantial residential growth planned.
- Incompatible zoning. The site is zoned by the Town of Frederick as C-E Employment District, which was intended to promote commercial growth along the I-25 corridor, and doesn’t allow oil and gas use. Rezoning and additional oil & gas development on this parcel is incompatible with its intended use.
Your comment doesn’t need to be long or technical to count; a few sentences in your own words is enough.
Overview
Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Onshore LP (KMOG), a wholly owned subsidiary of Oxy USA, has applied to drill 12 new horizontal oil and gas wells from an existing oil & gas location at the Nelson 28-35HZ facility, located south of Tipple Parkway and east of the I-25 frontage road in the Town of Frederick in Weld County. The existing pad already has 10 producing wells first spud/drilled in 2020. If approved and built, the location will have 22 horizontal wells in total; Kerr-McGee plans to (re)use the existing storage tanks to handle the production liquids from the new wells.
The drilling plan encompasses three drilling and spacing units (DSUs) that total almost 2,500 acres, shown in red dotted outlines on the map above (tap to enlarge).
Spread The Word
Right now, it’s most important to get the attention of the public (the Frederick community in particular) so they’re aware of the important dates and events for the Bayberry OGDP proposal as it moves towards approval with the Town of Frederick and the ECMC. Above is what we’ve been posting to Instagram, Facebook, and Threads; swipe through our posts, and if something here makes you as frustrated as it made us, share it. Repost it to your story, send it to a neighbor, or drop it in your group chat.
Every share puts this in front of someone who didn’t know a 12-well pad expansion is planned just 3/4 mile from Legacy Elementary School, the school most impacted by oil & gas infrastructure in Colorado.
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The Process
A virtual pre-application neighborhood meeting was held on Tuesday, August 26th, 2025. The Bayberry OGDP application was deemed complete by the ECMC on July 24, 2026, and a hearing to approve the OGDP is scheduled for October 21, 2026. A post-application neighborhood meeting was held at the Carbon Valley Regional Library in Firestone on August 25, 2026. The public comment period for the Bayberry OGDP is open through September 7, 2026. No 511 hearing was requested.
FAQ
While unusual, the U-shaped proposed wellbores at the Bayberry pad are not unique in the Denver-Julesburg basin. For example, see Prairie Operating Co’s Noble #3N68W5 wellbores below.
In their Cumulative Impacts Form 2B materials, Kerr-McGee indicated they would plug and abandon 26 wells within the drilling and spacing unit (DSU). However, all but 3 of those wells were plugged before Kerr-McGee submitted the Bayberry OGDP application to the ECMC in November 2025. The COSSLETT Heirs UU 1-5JI, Cosslett Heirs UU 01-03JI, and COSSLETT ‘E’ GAS UNIT 1 wells were plugged in June 2026. The good news is that all 26 legacy wells operated by Kerr-McGee in the DSU have been plugged and abandoned. The bad news? We may be stuck with these 12 new wells for another 30 years.
In their own Plain Language Summary for the Bayberry OGDP, Kerr-McGee actually wrote:
“Direct and indirect beneficial impacts for wildlife resulting from this OGDP may include temporary perches and wind blocks for avian species provided by production infrastructure, suitable habitat for burrowing species provided by cleared areas, and suitable habitat for ground-nesting birds and small mammals provided by native grasses that will be reseeded as part of the reclamation process.”
Read that again. They’re calling well pad equipment a wildlife amenity. You can help us by sharing this Instagram post, this Facebook post, or this Threads post.
Contacts
Questions about Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Onshore LP’s (KMOG, an Oxy USA subsidiary) plans for the Bayberry Pad:
Matt Wells, Senior Regulatory Advisor
matt_wells@oxy.com · 720-929-3403
Community/Stakeholder Relations Line
ColoradoStakeholder@oxy.com · 1-866-248-9577
Questions about the Town of Frederick’s permitting of the Bayberry Pad (Conditional Use Permit, rezoning, subdivision):
Robert Aronoff, PG — Oil & Gas Liaison / Local Government Designee
Town of Frederick Planning Department
raronoff@frederickco.gov · 720-382-5500
Questions for Weld County’s point of contact on this project (notified neighbor, not the approving jurisdiction):
Brett Cavanagh
bcavanagh@weld.gov · 970-400-3580
If you’re not getting straight answers from any of the above, our team has been following this project closely and is happy to help. Feel free to contact us directly.
Timeline
The Story THus Far
- May 21, ’20: Existing Location Approved
- ECMC approves Kerr-McGee’s Form 2A for the existing Nelson 28-35HZ location, authorizing 13 wells. This already-producing pad is what Bayberry proposes to expand.
- Jan ’21: Wells Spud
- Ten wells at the Nelson 28-35HZ location are first drilled, or “spud.” Hydraulic fracturing treatments are conducted later in the year
- Nov ’21: Wells Fracked
- Hydraulic fracturing treatments at the 10 Nelson wells are completed, consuming 105 million gallons of water and 37,700 tons of frac sand.
- Aug 26–27, ’25: Pre-Application Community Meetings
- Kerr-McGee holds the two required pre-application meetings ahead of filing. A virtual session on August 26 draws two stakeholders, one of whom raises concerns about well depth, well direction, and drilling vibrations and asks for the meeting materials by email. An in-person, open-house style meeting the following evening at the Carbon Valley Recreation Center draws no attendees from the public, despite invitations sent to 536 individuals.
- Nov 17, ’25: OGDP Application Filed
- Kerr-McGee files the Bayberry Oil and Gas Development Plan (OGDP) application, opening ECMC Docket 251100234, proposing 12 new horizontal wells on the existing pad.
- Dec 6, ’25: Town Conditional Use Permit Filed
- Kerr-McGee submits its Conditional Use Permit application to the Town of Frederick with a $64,000 fee.
- Jul 24, ’26: Application Deemed Complete
- The ECMC Director certifies the application complete, opens a 45-day public comment period, and issues the Notice of Hearing. The Town of Frederick’s separate Conditional Use Permit review remains open at this point, still in its second round of Development Review Committee comments with no hearing date set.
- Sep 7, ’26: Public Comment Period Closes
- The 45-day public comment period on the OGDP application closes.
- Sep 21, ’26: Deadline to Petition to Participate
- The deadline for any affected person to file a formal petition to participate in the ECMC Commission hearing.
- Oct 21, ’26: ECMC Hearing (scheduled)
- The ECMC Commission is scheduled to take up the Bayberry OGDP at a virtual hearing (subject to change).
Proposed Drilling/Completions Schedule
- Q2 2027: Mobilization & Pad Construction
- Kerr-McGee plans to mobilize equipment and construct the expanded pad, contingent on Town of Frederick approval of the Conditional Use Permit.
- Q2 2027: Pad Construction Complete
- Estimated 4–6 weeks after mobilization begins.
- Q2–Q3 2027: Drilling & Completion of All 12 Wells
- Estimated ~21 weeks (about five months), performed as a single continuous mobilization — KMOG states it will be on location to drill and complete the wells only once.
- Q3 2027: Oil & Gas Production Begins
- Estimated start of production following completion of the last well, piped to the existing Nelson 28-35HZ facility.
- Q1 2028: Final Site Completion
- Estimated completion of remaining site work — facility enhancements and final re-grading — within six months of production start, per the CUP Narrative.
- ~2052: Estimated Closure
- KMOG projects roughly 25 years (300 months) of production before plugging, abandonment, and reclamation begin.
More Information
We’ve assembled the documents below from application materials submitted to the Town of Frederick and the ECMC; see the disclaimer below. Visit the Town of Frederick Sharepoint site for its relevant materials. Visit the ECMC Hearings eFiling System, select the DNRCOG Search for Docket Related Documents option and search for Docket 251100234 for a complete listing of docket-related documents.
- Bayberry OGDP Map
- A detailed map provided by our partners at EcoCarto showing the existing and proposed oil & gas infrastructure, as well as the health-risk radii, for the Bayberry OGDP in the Town of Frederick, Weld County, Colorado.
- Existing Nelson 28-35HZ Form 2A Approval
- ECMC’s approval of the Nelson 28-35HZ location allowing Kerr McGee permission to drill up to 13 wells, granted May 21, 2020.
- Bayberry Pad Site Plan Set
- Kerr-McGee’s submitted overall, detailed, and grading site plans for the Bayberry OGDP.
- Bayberry OGDP Application (Amended, April 2026)
- Kerr-McGee’s amended application to ECMC, expanding the original 12-new-well request into a consolidated 22-well, roughly 2,479-acre Oil and Gas Development Plan across three drilling and spacing units.
- Cumulative Impacts Report (Form 2B)
- Kerr-McGee’s Form 2B cumulative impacts filing: the whole-project water-use breakdown by source (surface water, groundwater, and other categories), sensitive-area screening, and its evaluation of the nearest surface waters, wetlands, and riparian corridors.
- Kerr-McGee’s Plain Language Summary
- Kerr-McGee’s own April 2025 “plain-language” description of the Bayberry pad: location, well count, construction and production timeline, and its own summary of noise, light, odor, air quality, and water impacts.
Disclaimer
This webpage was compiled from publicly available application and permit materials from the Town of Frederick and the ECMC. This page is for community information purposes only; it is not a substitute for reviewing the official permit documents at the Town of Frederick or the ECMC.