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March 2013

Vol. 18, No. 11 Week of March 17, 2013

Sen. Begich pushes BLM on legacy wells

U.S. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, is calling on the Obama administration to promptly clean up so-called legacy wells on the North Slope.

In a March 7 letter, Begich asked Bud Cribley, Alaska director for the Bureau of Land Management, to “formally and personally reassure Alaskans” that the agency “has a workable plan to properly plug and abandon these wells.”

The legacy wells, predominantly within the BLM-managed National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, were drilled decades ago by federal departments or their contractors to assess the reserve’s oil and gas potential.

State drilling regulators and other elected officials including Alaska’s senior senator, Republican Lisa Murkowski, have said dozens of well sites are in poor and junky condition, and that the BLM needs to get busy with a cleanup.

Draft inventory submitted

BLM officials have cited the remote location of the wells and the enormous costs to plug and abandon them. Recently, the BLM submitted a draft inventory of the wells to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which regulates drilling in the state. The inventory will help the BLM develop a five-year strategic plan for dealing with the legacy wells, an agency spokeswoman said.

Begich, in his letter, also asked Cribley to explain how the BLM will satisfy terms of the National Historic Preservation Act without slowing down the cleanup process.

The BLM has said legacy wells 50 years old or older are subject to a mandatory process to document their historic value.

Begich also said he understood BLM representatives had “rather unhelpfully,” though perhaps accurately, stated at a hearing the AOGCC convened Jan. 10 on legacy wells that the BLM was not bound by state law and state well standards.

The senator noted the AOGCC had “done an admirable job” ensuring maximum resource utilization while protecting the public and groundwater. He concluded his letter by saying, “Alaskans expect better results on the legacy well issue than they have seen to date.”

—Wesley Loy






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