Department Of Interior Announces Award For 24 States To Plug Abandoned Oil, Gas Wells

The Department of the Interior announced Friday it has awarded an initial $560 million from the Biden administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to 24 states, including Oklahoma, to begin to plug, cap and reclaim orphaned oil and gas wells.

Millions of Americans across the country live within a mile of an orphaned oil and gas well.

The allocation is part of $1.15 billion in Phase One funding for states to remediate approximately 10,000 abandoned wells. In total, the law dedicates $4.7 billion to cleaning up these legacy pollution sites.

"This is a mammoth program," said Matt Skinner, Director of Public Information at the Oklahoma Corporation Commission in an interview Friday.

Oklahoma will get $25 million in the program's initial stage, with the money becoming available October 1, the start of the federal fiscal year. It's yet clear how the funds will be administered in Oklahoma.

"As with any program, particularly a large federal program such as this," said Skinner, "there are always questions about 'who', 'what', 'where', 'when', 'how' and not all those questions have been answered yet. So, obviously the OCC will spearhead the effort, but in terms of actual administration of the fund, those are questions that have to be answered and we’re not the only state with these questions."

Under guidelines provided by the federal government, the state provided a list of wells to be capped and reclaimed in the first phase; there are 1,196 total. Only Kansas has more.

Skinner points out the state has its own well-plugging program, which is funded through fees on producers. But with more than 17,000 abandoned wells, he said, it's hard to keep up.

"So, this program would allow us to do that," said Skinner, "be able to be more proactive and get ahead of the issue."

The administration is touting the benefits the cleanup will have in relation to climate change, given the potential to reduce Methane emissions that seep from the orphaned wells -- wells for which there is no longer a responsible operator.

Skinner said just as big a benefit for Oklahoma is reducing the potential for contamination of groundwater.

"There is no denying the fact that every well that needs to be plugged that isn’t plugged, for the time that it sits open, poses a potential threat," said Skinner, "and that threat has to be dealt with."

In addition to this money for the states, $33 million was recently allocated to plug 277 wells on federal public lands. And the administration said there are also efforts underway to stand up a Tribal orphaned well grant program.