Senate bill boosts legacy well funding

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she’s trying to secure more money for the Bureau of Land Management to deal with so-called legacy wells.

Murkowski, R-Alaska, has been critical of the agency for neglecting dozens of old government wells in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. She and other Alaska officials say many of the wells were never properly plugged and abandoned, and the drilling sites are polluted and junk-strewn. BLM officials have said they’ve made progress on remediating some of the wells, especially those imperiled by coastal erosion. But they cite the high cost of plugging the wells, many in remote locations.

The BLM is an agency within the U.S. Interior Department, and Murkowski is the top-ranking Republican on the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee.

Murkowski said the fiscal year 2013 Interior appropriations bill released Sept. 25 includes $6.5 million for cleanup of legacy wells, up from $1 million in 2012.

“Uncapped wells are a blight on our state, and the federal government is derelict in their duty to Alaska,” Murkowski said in a press release. She said her subcommittee colleagues felt a funding increase to deal with the wells was “far overdue.”

The Navy and the U.S. Geological Survey drilled 136 exploratory wells and boreholes between 1943 and 1982. They’re now under the purview of the BLM, which manages the petroleum reserve.

Ruth McCoard, spokeswoman for the BLM in Anchorage, told Petroleum News the agency has no immediate plans to plug any legacy wells, but a couple were done recently. In 2012, the BLM plugged two legacy wells near Umiat for $3.5 million.

She said the agency is working with the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission on a three-year plan to remediate priority legacy wells “and to position ourselves to take advantage of any additional funding that may be provided through appropriation.”

—Wesley Loy