Great Western

Challenge

The Ivey Pad is a drilling pad owned by Great Western Petroleum, LLC, in Adams County. This important asset is near many residential homes, and the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) permit rules changed during Great Western’s application process.

Additionally, the COGCC was under pressure from certain elected officials, concerned neighbors, and environmental activist groups to not grant Great Western’s permit, which would have been economically devastating to Great Western.

Novitas, in conjunction with Great Western leadership, created and executed a multi-faceted communications strategy to address citizen concerns and respond to activist pressure. The result was Great Western receiving one of the first drilling permits under new, tougher COGCC regulations.

Summary

Great Western is an independent oil and natural gas company with operations in northwestern Adams County and western Weld County, Colorado. Great Western’s mission is to produce energy in a safe and responsible way to improve people’s lives.

Solution

Novitas determined that a successful strategy to obtain a permit at the Ivey Pad would center around transparency, communications, and community partnership. To that end, Novitas and Great Western developed several tactics to achieve each of these strategic objectives.

Great Western began quarterly virtual town halls that gave any citizen the opportunity to ask questions about the proposed operations at the Ivey Pad drilling site.  Great Western made corporate leadership as well as subject matter experts available for questions, and openly and honestly addressed all citizen concerns throughout this series of townhalls.

Once work began on the site, Great Western produced videos showing daily time lapse photography of what happens “behind the wall,” at a frack site, as well as details about the fracking process and materials used.  People were curious, and sometimes suspicious, because they cannot see operations, and this tactic showed them the process, which eased a lot of fears.

Great Western received many repetitive questions from members of the pubic, and to help create additional transparency, the company created a FAQ sheet that addressed many common concerns.

All of the communications efforts around the Ivey Pad application process were developed with transparency and openness.  Because of this Great Western was able to win over concerned citizens who were open minded with legitimate concerns about the fracking operations at the Ivey Pad.

Novitas also understood the importance of explaining the many benefits that would accrue to the area from its partnership with Great Western.  Most people were unaware of these benefits, and Great Western’s detractors certainly were not about to mention benefits to the community.

The Ivey Pad is the first Platinum GREEN facility identified through Great Western’s GREEN Initiative. The site will house wellheads for two northern and 10 southern horizontally drilled wells. Great Western was able to reduce the well count at the Ivey Pad thus decreasing the duration of the overall project.

These communications focused on job creation, the actual output of the completed project, and the environmental restoration that would occur with the completion of the well.

When completed, Great Western projected that the Ivey Pad would produce enough energy to support about 75,000 homes for twenty years.  We also communicated that the footprint that is leftover after the fracking operations was minimal, as oil and gas would continuously flow to the surface and be transported away through pipelines.

Environmental restoration was key as well. Great Western is working with a non-profit conservation group, the Butterfly Pavilion, to enhance the environment around the site after completion, leaving the area better than how they found it.

Results