Comprehensive Drilling Plan

Our Mustang Comprehensive Drilling Plan (CDP) is a blueprint for a master-planned energy development area spanning 100 square miles of contiguous rural land in the DJ Basin. It involves:

• 64,000 acres of farmland southeast of Greeley, Colorado in Weld County, encompassing rural lands with no municipalities within the boundaries
• More than 400 approved horizontal drilling permits
• Removing 1,800 older vertical wells and their production facilities

The Mustang CDP is advancing the way we fuel Colorado lifestyles by supporting our overarching goal to minimize our footprint in and around communities by plugging and removing older vertical wells and related production facilities.

For more on all the ways we protect, respect and work together with our communities, see our Noble Neighbor Program.

Innovation is at the root of our oil and natural gas operations. Through the use of advancing technology in our Mustang CDP, we are streamlining development to increase efficiency, enhance safety and significantly reduce our footprint.  The full spectrum of the CDP’s environmental benefits include reductions in emissions, water use, traffic and more.

The Mustang CDP provides the blueprint for modernizing operations and minimizing the footprint of development in this area. This includes tankless econode facilities for production.

A single “econode” can service wells spread out over as much as 8 sections — eliminating the need for numerous production facilities.

Additional benefits of our tankless system include:

• Significantly reducing air emissions
• Significantly reducing truck traffic
• Avoiding potential spills and releases
• Minimizing impacts to neighboring residents

In conjunction with the development of extended-reach horizontal wells, the plan includes plugging 1,800 legacy wells and removing associated surface equipment and tanks within CDP lands. This will eliminate air emissions associated with these sites. Learn more about our Plug and Removal Program.

Once the older wells are plugged and removed, we will reclaim lands and access roads so surface owners can use the area for agricultural and other purposes. See the map of reclamation areas for full details.

The CDP will provide the opportunity to capitalize on recycling of flowback and produced water to the fullest extent practicable — reducing the amount of freshwater needed for well construction and completions (the process of preparing a well for production).

Traditional drilling permits are for two-year periods. Permits within the CDP are for six-year periods. This provides us with the flexibility to develop long-term plans that enable us to work our schedule around seasonal crops and wildlife migration.

As the single designated operator of the Mustang CDP, Noble Energy can transport all fluids (oil, natural gas and produced water) by pipeline infrastructure.

As part of our traffic and safety plan already in place, all designated transportation routes associated with the CDP utilize existing paved roads, such as WCR 49, that have been constructed to accommodate commercial traffic. See the map of access roads for full details.

Over the life of the project, we estimate this will:

The Mustang CDP is part of our Noble Neighbor Program — the initiatives that help ensure we are doing everything we can to protect, respect and work together with the communities we call home.

With a strong focus on community, safety, technology and innovation, programs within Noble Neighbor also include:

• Integrated Development Plan (IDP)
• Plug and Removal Program
• Community Investment
• Noble Operations and Safety Training Center (NOSTC)
• Noble Operations Control Center (NOCC)
• Alternative Truck Loading Anson System (ATLAS)
• Leak Detection and Repair (LDAR)