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Providing coverage of Alaska and northern Canada's oil and gas industry
February 2013

Vol. 18, No. 5 Week of February 03, 2013

Legacy well resolution offered in House

The Alaska Legislature again is considering a resolution calling on the federal government to clean up so-called legacy wells on the North Slope.

State Rep. Charisse Millett, R-Anchorage, introduced House Joint Resolution 6 on Jan. 28.

The resolution is similar to the one that passed with overwhelming support in both the House and Senate during the 2012 session.

A resolution does not carry the same weight as a bill that can become law. Rather, a resolution merely expresses legislative sentiment.

The legacy wells are in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Federal departments drilled more than 135 wells between 1944 and 1982.

The Bureau of Land Management is now responsible for the NPR-A and the old wells.

Some Alaska officials, including Millett and Cathy Foerster, chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, say BLM has neglected numerous legacy well sites and failed to properly plug and abandon the holes.

“Hardly any progress was made last year and that will continue as long as the agency fails to create an aggressive cleanup plan and back it up with adequate funding,” Millett said in a Jan. 29 press release.

BLM officials have said they’re developing a plan to assess the legacy wells. And they’ve said they doubt any are posing a hazard.

HJR 6 has been referred to the House Resources Committee.

It calls for BLM to not only plug and abandon the legacy wells, but to open new areas of the NPR-A for “environmentally responsible oil and gas development.”

—Wesley Loy






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