State fines oil, gas company $2M after finding a pattern of violations

Regulators imposed a $2 cardinal punishment connected a Denver lipid and state institution Tuesday for a bid of violations to authorities rules.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission decided determination was a signifier of violations by the family-owned K.P. Kauffman Co., causing the sheet to summation the good from $1.8 million. The $2 cardinal penalty is the second-largest levied by the COGCC.

The institution had faced losing its quality to run successful Colorado if the committee had decided to suspend a certificate needed to transport lipid and state from the good tract and prohibited it from receiving caller permits.

The COGCC fined Kerr McGee, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corp., $18.25 cardinal for its portion successful a 2017 house detonation successful Firestone that killed 2 men and injured a woman. In 2018, the bureau fined Noble Energy $1.6 cardinal for violations.

“The decisions made contiguous underscore the main extremity for the COGCC arsenic a regulator, which is for operators to beryllium successful compliance to guarantee protections for nationalist health, safety, welfare, wildlife and biology resources,” the committee said successful a connection astir the K.P. Kauffman ruling.

The COGCC unit recommended fining K.P. Kauffman $3.7 cardinal for complaints that included failing to study spills and taking attraction of problems successful a timely manner. One of the complaints said the institution dumped respective loads of ungraded contaminated with lipid and state discarded connected a tract it owns with a pond and wetlands nearby.

The complaints progressive incidents that occurred earlier sweeping changes to authorities lipid and state regulations took effect Jan. 15.

The lipid and state committee dismissed immoderate alleged violations due to the fact that the statute of limitations had expired and consolidated others. In immoderate cases, the sheet said the unit didn’t supply capable evidence.

A proceeding is scheduled Oct. 7 connected a projected compliance program for the company. K.P. Kauffman has astir 1,200 lipid and state wells. Most of those are successful Weld County.