AG Raúl Torrez Files Lawsuit Against Parties Responsible for Fraudulent Oil Well Scheme Endangering New Mexicans
State Agency Press Release – From the Office of New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez
December 23, 2025
Santa Fe, NM – Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed a lawsuit today with the First Judicial District Court accusing three individuals, Everett Willard Gray II, Robert K. Stitzel and Marquis Reed Gilmore Jr., of fraudulently scheming to pocket revenues from hundreds of oil and gas wells in New Mexico using a variety of shell corporations.
The trio is accused of deliberately skipping out on its companies’ environmental responsibilities, “selling” wells to themselves and filing bankruptcy to avoid plugging inactive wells – endangering the health of New Mexicans with contaminated soil and dangerous, unchecked methane emissions.
The lawsuit highlights that methane emissions from inactive wells contribute substantially to climate change while also posing significant hazards to human health – contributing to the formation of “smog.” Smog is linked with reduced lung function, asthma and early death from respiratory and cardiovascular disease.
“New Mexicans are suffering from adverse health risks and bear the brunt of environmental harms caused by these companies failing to uphold their agreed-upon duty to responsibly plug oil and gas wells when they are no longer in production,” said Attorney General Raúl Torrez. “I will not stand by while bad actors take advantage of the system – avoiding responsibility, burdening the state with costly remediation, and recklessly endangering the health of New Mexicans.”
New Mexico’s Oil and Gas Act and its implementing regulations require that, once a well has been inactive for a certain period of time, at the end of its production life, its operator must plug and remediate the well to mitigate environmental harms.
Upon abandonment, the state must assume the responsibility and is forced to pay an average of $163,000 in taxpayer money to plug each well whose operators have defaulted.
In New Mexico, the average unplugged oil and gas well emits roughly 120 kg of methane each year compared to an average plugged well that emits less than 0.1 kg per year.
Methane emissions from inactive wells pose a serious hazard to the earth’s climate as methane traps 82.5 times as much heat in the atmosphere as the same amount of carbon dioxide over a twenty-year period.
The lawsuit seeks a number of remedies including that the defendants pay civil penalties and damages and are prevented from conducting business in New Mexico until they have:
- Plugged and remediated all of their inactive wells
- Brought those wells into compliance with regulations
- Set aside money sufficient to cover future plugging and remediation costs into an escrow account
- Reimbursed the state for costs already spent on plugging and remediating wells
- Paid damages and associated civil penalties
The lawsuit names 15 companies allegedly utilized in the defendants’ scheme including Acacia Resources, LLC; Acacia Operating Company, LLC; Remnant Oil Company, LLC; Remnant Oil Operating, LLC; WS Oil and Gas, Ltd.; First Gray Corporation; RS Resources, Ltd.; Stitzel Corporation; Gilmore Oil & Gas, LP; Bluebird Energy Corporation, Cibolo Energy Resources, LLC; Solis Partners, LLC; Pecos Slope Holdings, LLC; and New Era Energy & Digital, Inc.
As of September 2025, Acacia alone was listed as the operator for 219 inactive and abandoned wells – all of which still need to be plugged and remediated.
A copy of the filed lawsuit can be found here.