Spending panel will consider releasing $11 million from feds to plug abandoned gas wells in Ohio

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Department of Natural Resources is asking a panel of lawmakers to waive bids for $11.2 million in contracts to plug abandoned oil and gas wells across the state.

The request is a small part of a national, federally funded effort to plug these “orphan” wells – which pose environmental and human health risks – across the country. Some estimates put the total number of these wells long abandoned by their owners in the millions.

The money, funded through the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, pays for work destroying what ODNR says are nearly 20,000 “documented” abandoned wells spread across the state. Other estimates cited by the Ohio River Valley Institute are significantly higher, putting the range at between 160,000 and 180,000 abandoned wells in Ohio alone.

The state’s orphan well program, typically funded by a tax on oil and gas production, has plugged just 1,200 wells over the past five years. However, since then, Ohio has received tens of millions from federal legislation to seal tens of thousands of wells.

The Ohio Board of Control, a panel of lawmakers with certain state spending powers, will decide Monday on the request to award the contracts to CSR Services and Next LVL Energy, both of Pennsylvania.

Abandoned wells can leak methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and volatile organic compounds into the air. Bid documents for the Ohio job seek candidates with experience remediating radium, a radioactive byproduct of oil and gas operations.

The IIJA, which President Joe Biden called one of his signature political victories, included $4.7 billion for plugging orphan wells. As of March 2024, about $176 million of that total has been allocated to plug abandoned wells and reclaim abandoned mine lands in Ohio, according to the White House.