A rig pumps oil from the ground. (Photo by Kyle Phillips/For Oklahoma Voice)
Oil and gas drilling is a dirty business and has a serious impact on our wildlands and communities.
It involves the use and release of numerous toxic chemicals that enter the environment via several pathways: drilling, hydraulic fracturing, waste pits, spills, and releases to air.
With oil and gas long being a lifeblood of our economy, it’s not surprising that according to a study published in Environmental Health Perspectives, roughly half of all Oklahomans live within a mile of an active well. But I suspect untold numbers likely live in proximity to orphaned wells. Those are the wells that have been abandoned by companies, without regard to best practices required to shutter them to ensure public safety.
After oil and gas wells are done producing, they must be properly closed to prevent air and water pollution, protect the health of the surrounding communities, restore the property values of the landowner, and in particular, prevent high-priority, climate-forcing methane emissions.
Methane is the second leading greenhouse gas causing global warming after carbon dioxide. And, because it’s often paired with other toxic pollutants, the release of methane into the air can cause debilitating health problems for the millions of people who live near oil and gas operations.
Oklahoma has more than 260,000 unplugged wells, 20,000 of which are “orphan” or abandoned wells.
Based on the number of previously unknown wells that have been found since the start of this century, the actual number is almost undoubtedly appreciably higher, as no records were submitted for many wells drilled in the early 20th century and locations given for documented wells from that time period were often extremely inaccurate.
Until properly plugged, oil and gas wells, besides emitting methane, pose additional environmental and health hazards, including allowing oil, gas and other toxic chemicals, such as arsenic, benzene, and hydrogen sulfide, to seep into the soil and groundwater, contaminating drinking water sources and ecosystems.
Contaminated soil, small oil spills and other surface waste along with old equipment can still be present at orphaned well sites. In some poorly plugged or unplugged wells, gas, salty water, oil, or drilling mud can spill out from the well onto the ground surface potentially harming livestock and other animals.
Estimates show it could cost approximately $7.3 billion to plug and clean up the state’s wells. In contrast, our state coffers have just $45 million worth of bonds. In theory, cleanup is supposed to be guaranteed by bonds that companies fund.
The public’s rightful expectation is that oil and gas operators should be contributing enough in bonds up front to guarantee the financial responsibilities related to well abandonment. Sufficient bonding creates an incentive for companies to plug their own wells: Once the work is completed, the company gets its bond back.
However, as made evident in a May 5, 2024, Propublica story, because of Oklahoma’s lenient bonding requirements and loopholes in existing statutes and rules, there is little to deter wells from being abandoned by those who have no intent to be a legitimate oil and gas operator. Those operators often form shell companies under false ownership names, strip existing wells and sell the salvaged material. The “operator” then goes out of business, abandoning the wells and leaving the responsibility for cleanup to the state.
This situation provided Oklahoma lawmakers with the impetus to overhaul bonding requirements for oil and gas producers with House Bill 1369. This bill, which has advanced to the Senate, would create tiers for amounts paid to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission based on the number of wells owned by an operator.
The Corporation Commission also uses money from an excise tax on oil and gas producers to plug wells with no known owner in Oklahoma. With this in mind, House Bill 1370 would increase the percentage of money flowing to the fund from fossil fuel production. That measure also cleared the state House and awaits consideration in the Senate.
The Oklahoma Energy Resources Board, a state agency funded voluntarily by Oklahoma’s oil and natural gas producers and royalty owners, also focuses on environmental restoration of abandoned well sites. Since the levy’s inception it has funded the restoration of more than 20,000 sites. But as another Propublica investigation reported, some of Oklahoma’s biggest oil companies — 76 in all over the past seven years — have opted out of the fund, forcing the state to refund millions of dollars that would have otherwise gone toward restoring an additional 1,500 orphan well sites.
A final revenue source for plugging wells was supposed to be federal funding available through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Currently, however, that funding is on hold due to an executive order issued by President Donald Trump which halted the disbursement of unspent funds.
Trump’s directive seeks to support the fossil fuel industry and discourage renewable energy policies and projects in the United States.
Should these federal dollars be permanently withheld, the already slow progress of plugging wells in Oklahoma could become collateral damage.
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