Congress approves more legacy well funding

Alan Bailey

Petroleum News

On Aug. 1 the U.S. Senate passed a four-bill appropriations package that, among many provisions, includes funding of $9.5 million to continue the work by the Bureau of Land Management to remediate disused legacy wells in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. With the House of Representatives having already passed the legislation, the legislation now goes to the president for his signature.

In a multi-year program, BLM has been working through the remediation of an inventory of wells drilled by the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Geological Survey between 1944 and 1982 but not properly plugged and abandoned. The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, with oversight of well safety in Alaska, has for a number of years been pushing for the appropriate remediation of the wells, ensuring that the wells are properly sealed and tidied up.

Apparently the new funding is intended to cover the cost of dealing with the next cluster of wells in the remediation program. The bill also directs BLM to develop a long-term funding plan for completion of the well clean-up within ten years.

“I am incredibly proud that by working together, in a truly bipartisan manner, we have made progress moving through the appropriations process to fund critical programs important to Alaska and the nation,” said U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee who had managed the legislation on the Senate floor.

- ALAN BAILEY