A couple years ago, Texas had a problem with abandoned oil and gas wells.
It still does.
That was the takeaway Wednesday from a hearing at the state Senate, where lawmakers learned the agency responsible for plugging wells can't seal them as quickly as they're being abandoned.
Abandoned oil and gas wells can leak and damage water supplies, emit chemicals in the atmosphere and present a physical hazard to people nearby. Last legislative session, the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state鈥檚 strangely named oil and gas regulator, said there were around state, and lawmakers gave it more money to plug them.
On Wednesday, Railroad Commissioners updated the state Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Economic Development about the well program. While the presentation sounded upbeat, the numbers were troubling.
When it comes to the number of wells the commission has plugged over the last couple years, 鈥渨e鈥檝e not only met our targets, but exceeded them,鈥� Commission Chair Christi Craddick said. She expected the commission to plug 3,000 wells by the end of the two-year funding period.
鈥淭he problem is,鈥� she added, 鈥渨e鈥檙e back at the exact same number [of wells as when] we started.鈥�
How does that work?
As the commission has been plugging wells, Commissioner Ryan Sitton said, others have been abandoned, leaving the agency treading water. He said commissioners expect the situation to worsen as oil and gas operators move from vertical drilling to the often-more-lucrative horizontal drilling.
鈥淲e have 440,000 wells in the state of Texas today and we have about 130,000 that aren鈥檛 producing,鈥� he said. That means 鈥測ou have a lot of old vertical wells that will get abandoned. 鈥� They鈥檙e going to be coming in greater and greater numbers.鈥�
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