Denver—The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission approved a set of safety measures designed to increase protections surrounding thousands of miles of underground oil and gas pipelines in the state. The rules approved Thursday provide for public access to a more detailed and accurate state map of locations of flowlines, which are pipelines that connect an oil or gas well to other pieces of equipment. They also tighten procedural and reporting requirements when energy companies install, open, close or abandon flowlines. Odorless gas seeping from an abandoned flowline contributed to a 2017 home explosion in Firestone that killed two people and injured two others. Investigators found that, despite being abandoned, the line was connected to an operating well.
