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The Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the state’s oil and gas industry, has asked lawmakers for $100 million in additional emergency funding after failing to address the growing number of well leaks and blowouts in the state’s oil fields. This represents approximately 44% of the agency’s entire two-year budget.
Danny Sorrell, the agency’s executive director, sent the letter two months after the commission submitted its annual budget request in August, according to the Houston Chronicle. He said the agency’s $226 million budget request does not include enough funding to “protect groundwater and the environment” from the increasingly frequent well blowouts.
The agency follows an evaluation system to determine which wells need to be plugged first, according to Texas law. Priority 1 wells are leaking wells that pose an environmental, safety, or economic risk. Agency spokesman RJ DeSilva said the uncontrolled flow of water in the well constituted an emergency. In an emergency, agency staff “responds immediately and resolves the issue,” he said.
The agency said it aggressively addresses well leaks regardless of whether there is sufficient funding for well remediation in the designated budget, but Soler said the practice is unsustainable. As a result, the agency is plugging fewer wells for non-emergency purposes each year.
“These high-priority wells need to be addressed before they become emergency wells themselves,” he said.
According to the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, there are about 140,000 so-called orphan wells in the United States, more than 9,000 of which are in Texas. These are abandoned wells that have not been used for at least 12 months and have no clear owner.
If left unattended, isolated wells are prone to eruptions, spewing contaminated water onto surrounding land. Experts said the industry’s routine practice of injecting hydraulic fracturing wastewater (called produced water) into underground rock formations is contributing to the problem.
Oil and gas attorney Sarah Stogner told the Texas Tribune earlier this month that at least eight wells have leaked or ruptured since last October. Stogner has been tracking such wells for years.
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In December 2023, an abandoned well in Imperial, southwest of Odessa, erupted and took more than two months to close. This well alone will cost regulators $2.5 million to cap and clean.
In October, another well in Toya burst, releasing a torrent of water that took weeks to contain. Kinder Morgan, the energy company responsible for the well, declined to say how much the blockage cost.
Salt water contains chemicals collected underground, including hydrogen sulfide, a toxic and deadly gas.
Congress approved $4.7 billion to plug orphan wells on public and private lands as part of the bipartisan infrastructure law passed in 2021. Texas will receive $25 million of that in 2022 and another $80 million in January.
The Railroad Commission used the money to plug 737 wells, 10 percent of the estimated orphaned wells in Texas. It also plugged 1,754 wells through an effort funded by $63 million in state funds.
Efforts are still not enough.
Sorrell’s letter to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan said regulators need funding to deploy a team of inspectors who can investigate the cause of the blowouts related to the injection of produced water. “The authorities’ ability to assess, characterize and assess these events is currently limited by the resources available to them,” Sorrells said.
Sorrells said the cost of plugging wells, which includes labor costs and materials such as cement and rigs, has increased by 36% since 2022.
Texas oil and gas industry leaders and environmental advocates both praised the commission’s request.
“We have long supported increased funding for the commission in this and other areas,” said Permian Basin Petroleum Association President Ben Shepherd. “We support Congress acting beyond the commission’s request for funding for clogs and repairs. This industry generates billions of dollars each year, and we support Congress in moving beyond the commission’s request for funding for clogs and repairs. It seems appropriate that it can be further utilized for other purposes.”
Julie Range, policy manager for oil and gas watchdog Commission Shift, praised the agency’s request.
“We hope the research team will urge the Railroad Commission to scrutinize the approval process and deny construction of additional injection wells that would pressurize underground aquifers and put many of these wells into emergency status.” ” she said.
For years, a growing number of experts and ranchers have warned the commission about the growing threat that wells pose to the environment and the region’s fragile groundwater resources.
In August, researchers at Southern Methodist University investigated the common practice of injecting wastewater from groundwater fracking and the oil-rich Permian Basin, a 75,000-square-mile region spanning West Texas and New Mexico. ) discovered a relationship with eruptions occurring throughout the region.
Disclosure: The Permian Basin Petroleum Institute and Southern Methodist University have financially supported the Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by contributions from members, foundations, and corporate sponsors. Ta. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. See the complete list of them here.
