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Guest Essay: The Conventional Oil And Gas Industry Isn't Taking Responsibility For Their Wells

By Rep. Greg Vitali, Majority Chair, House Environmental Committee

This guest essay first appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on March 1, 2024--

Despite the Shapiro administration’s increased efforts to plug orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells, conventional drillers continue to abandon their wells at a rate faster than the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) can plug them.

Unless the DEP’s Oil and Gas Program is given adequate staffing to properly police conventional drillers and the ability to increase bonding amounts to ensure drillers fulfill their well plugging obligations, taxpayer money — both federal and state — will continue to be wasted on DEP ‘s well plugging efforts.

Problem wells

DEP estimates that there are more than 200,000 orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania.

According to a December 2022 DEP report: “Unplugged or improperly plugged wells can cause a myriad of problems, including gas migration into occupied structures, water supply impacts, surface water impacts, hazardous air pollutant emissions, methane emissions, and soil and groundwater contamination. Improperly plugged wells have been tied to fatal explosions.”

The Shapiro administration recently announced it plugged 137 wells in 2023, but DEP data indicates that between Jan. 1, 2017, and October 2023, at least 1,080 oil and gas wells were abandoned and possibly as many as 741 more.

Conventional drillers are abandoning their wells at a faster rate than the DEP is plugging them.

DEP’s December 2022 report indicated that it “has identified significant non-compliance with laws and regulations in the conventional oil and gas industry, particularly regarding improper abandonment of oil and gas wells”

The report went on to state that “It cannot be emphasized strongly enough, however, that increased oversight of the conventional oil and gas industry and enforcement will require additional resources for the Department, especially in the DEP Office of Chief Counsel and the Bureau of District Oil and Gas Operations.”

Not enough staff or money

DEP’s Oil and Gas program has the responsibility to inspect about 102,060 oil and gas wells. In 2015, DEP’s oil and Gas program had 226 filled positions. The program is currently down to 171 positions due to declining revenue. DEP simply does not have the staff to compel drillers to plug their wells.

[Note: At the House hearing on DEP’s budget last week, Interim Acting Secretary Jessica Shirley said the Oil and Gas Program funding will be “in the red” by this Fall to support the program unless $11 million is provided to finish next fiscal year. Read more here.]

Moreover, the workload of the Oil and Gas program is increasing every year. At the same time, revenue to pay for the program is decreasing as drillers apply for fewer new permits.

The cost of hiring additional staff is not the issue. Pennsylvania is projected to have a $14-billion surplus at the end of this fiscal year.

In addition to lack of staffing, inadequate bonding requirements for conventional wells have contributed to their abandonment.

For conventional wells drilled after April 15, 1985, Pennsylvania law requires drillers to post a bond which could be forfeited to cover the cost of plugging should the well be abandoned.

Act 96 of 2022 removed the authority of the DEP to increase bonding amounts above $2,500 per well for 10 years.

DEP estimates it costs on average $33,000 to plug a conventional well. This $2,500 bonding amount is woefully inadequate to ensure drillers meet their plugging obligations.

Whack-a-mole

Pennsylvania is set to receive up to $400 million over the next 10 years through the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for well plugging.

Unless PA can stop conventional drillers from abandoning their wells, DEP efforts to plug wells will become a game of whack-a-mole with newly abandoned wells popping up faster than old ones are being plugged.

Taxpayer dollars will be wasted.

The Pennsylvania House, when it introduces its Budget bill in the upcoming months should provide funding to restore the DEP’s Oil and Gas program to its full complement of 226 positions.

The House should also pass House Bill 962 to restore DEP’s authority to increase bonding amounts.

Resource Links:

-- Democrats On House Environmental Committee Report Out Bill To Help Prevent The Routine Abandonment Of 561 Conventional Oil/Gas Wells A Year

-- House Hearing: Let’s Work Together To Make Conventional Oil & Gas Industry Practices Cleaner, Respect Property Rights, Protect Taxpayers And Prevent New Abandoned Wells

-- DEP Issued At Least 512 Violations To 95 Conventional Oil & Gas Operators For Abandoning Wells Without Plugging Them In 2023; 10 Shale Gas Operators Were Issued NOVs For Abandoning Wells [PaEN]

-- StateImpactPA - Rachel McDevitt: PA Gains New Abandoned Conventional Oil & Gas Wells As It Sets Records Capping Old Ones

-- Spotlight PA: Federal Money Supercharged PA’s Plugging Of Dangerous Conventional Oil & Gas Wells, But Critics Want More Oversight

2023 Oil & Gas Compliance Reports:

-- DEP Issues Record 6,860 Notices Of Violation To Conventional Oil & Gas Operators In 2023-- Nearly 52% More Than In 2021; ‘Culture Of Non-Compliance’ Continues [PaEN]

-- 2023 Shale Gas Operator Compliance Report: 1,310 Violations; Explosions; Pad Fire, Evacuation; Uncontrolled Gas Venting; Frack-Outs; Polluting Water Supply; Spills; Pipeline Crashing Thru A Home; More [PaEN]

-- PA Environment Digest: Articles On Oil & Gas Facility Impacts

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