SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining says they have been granted five million dollars by the federal government to accelerate the pace of the OGM Orphan Well Plugging Program.
The division reports that as of May 2025, there were 100 orphaned wells in Utah. Orphaned wells are ones that are no longer active and often don't have a business to be responsible for their capping.
The Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining says many of these orphaned wells were drilled prior to the establishment of the Oil and Gas Commission in 1955 and therefore were not held to regulations. Other orphaned wells are ones abandoned by companies that went out of business.
The program, which started in 1992, has plugged 153 of these wells in Utah for the cost of $5.7 million.
According to officials with the division, work began at the end of March in the Uintah Basin and will expand to southeastern Utah throughout the next two years. Currently, they plan to plug 24 wells in that time.
Another 34 wells are being considered for plugging, but the division says another company might take them over, which would spare them from capping.
“Our goal with this program is to reduce the orphaned well inventory in Utah to zero and to plug newly orphaned wells shortly after they come before the Board of Oil, Gas and Mining,” said OGM Engineering and Geoscience Manager Megan Crocker. “With this new funding and our contracting strategy, we aim to decrease the amount of time that wells stay in orphan status after going before the Board, ensuring these orphan wells are safely plugged, and the land is reclaimed in a timely manner.”
Every orphan well undergoes risk assessment to determine its priority for plugging. The conditions inspectors look for include: proximity to population centers and water sources, the depth of the well, internal pressure, and the condition of the well's equipment.
Funding for the plugging operations comes from federal grants and producers of oil and gas, through a two-tenths-of-one-percent levy on the value of the production.
