Controlling Board approves $13.8 million for plugging orphan oil and gas wells; DNR outlines priority process

COLUMBUS — The State Controlling Board on Oct. 20 approved roughly $13.8 million for the Department of Natural Resources to continue locating and plugging orphaned oil and gas wells.

Ryan Frazee, DNR chief financial officer, introduced the request and deferred detailed technical answers to Tara Kinsey Lee of the Division of Oil and Gas. Kinsey Lee told the board the state has more than 19,000 documented orphan wells and described ongoing consultant contracts to locate wells that are not readily visible. “Right now we know there's over 19,000 documented orphan wells in the state,” she said, and the agency is building projects to plug them.

Kinsey Lee said the agency plugged about 411 wells last year, has plugged 97 so far this year, and aims to plug another 400 to 500 wells this year. She described a risk matrix used to assign priority to wells — the highest-priority wells are typically the ones plugged sooner — and said teams take advantage of geographic clustering to increase value for the dollar when multiple wells can be addressed in a single project.

Senator Ingram questioned whether the state has been routinely checking water or otherwise documenting damage before investing significant sums. Kinsey Lee said the program assigns priorities based on risk to drinking-water aquifers and other factors and that the agency investigates wells to determine owners and whether they meet orphan-well criteria before allocating plugging resources.

The board approved the DNR request by voice vote.