**If you have
abandoned/orphaned oil and gas wells and facilities on your property, and you
need assistance, I want to hear from you. Information located at the end
of the article.**
---------------------
by: Jeff Falck
---------------------
Right off the bat, let
me say that I am not anti-oil/gas or a member of the "Stop the
Fracking" crowd. Quite the contrary, I'm a firm believer in the
Texas energy industry, it's a vital part of our state's economy and I think the
majority of us want to see it done responsibly, and those who operate within
the industry are held accountable for their actions.
I'll reference Chris
Tomlinson of the Houston Chronicle, who posted an article in June of last year
that outlined the problem with the Texas Railroad Commission very clearly.
"Don't Stick Texans With Cost of Abandoned Wells".
Picture this...
"A representative of an oil exploration/production company comes to your
door and says you have oil/gas reserves on your property. You enter into
an "airtight" agreement and they move forward.
Surveys are done, roads are cut, zig zagging your property. Heavy machinery and rigs are now traveling through your once pristine property.
You're receiving checks in the mailbox and all is well. It's more money than you've ever seen before, but a small amount compared to what the operator is taking each month. Not to mention what they can "skim" in the gray areas of your contracts.
Oil/gas prices start to drop, the operator has now found your property to be "marginal" or "non-producing". The mailbox checks dry up due to "fees" and "expenses", and the operator has stopped paying their contractors. They're not returning your phone calls.
Weeds now grow across the once heavily traveled rig roads, and the pumpers have stopped pumping all together. Tanks are left behind filled with nothing but water, sludge and who knows what else. All this equipment is valueless and hazardous.
Then you finally get the notice of bankruptcy or abandonment in the mail, or you've simply given up trying to contact anyone. You're left with a huge cleanup bill on your hands, and it may be years before you get your land back the way it was.
What do you do now?"
Surveys are done, roads are cut, zig zagging your property. Heavy machinery and rigs are now traveling through your once pristine property.
You're receiving checks in the mailbox and all is well. It's more money than you've ever seen before, but a small amount compared to what the operator is taking each month. Not to mention what they can "skim" in the gray areas of your contracts.
Oil/gas prices start to drop, the operator has now found your property to be "marginal" or "non-producing". The mailbox checks dry up due to "fees" and "expenses", and the operator has stopped paying their contractors. They're not returning your phone calls.
Weeds now grow across the once heavily traveled rig roads, and the pumpers have stopped pumping all together. Tanks are left behind filled with nothing but water, sludge and who knows what else. All this equipment is valueless and hazardous.
Then you finally get the notice of bankruptcy or abandonment in the mail, or you've simply given up trying to contact anyone. You're left with a huge cleanup bill on your hands, and it may be years before you get your land back the way it was.
What do you do now?"
Is this your reality?
I spent the last five
years, observing first hand, the rise, fall, and abandonment of an oil field
services operation.
Now that I've been
away from it for several months, doing research I found that Texas has in the
neighborhood of 12,000 abandoned/orphaned oil and gas wells, and that is not
taking into consideration surface facilities such as disposals, pipe yards and
roustabout locations.
Many of these
locations, once they had served their purpose, are abandoned for one reason or
another, usually under the protection of "bankruptcy".
The skeletal remains of what used to be a productive facility is now left to the landowner and taxpayers of Texas to foot the bill on the cleanup. Unfortunately, some estimates into the millions of dollars.
The skeletal remains of what used to be a productive facility is now left to the landowner and taxpayers of Texas to foot the bill on the cleanup. Unfortunately, some estimates into the millions of dollars.
Where is the Texas
Railroad Commission in all this? They are locked into an understaffed and
underfunded, bureaucratic, "good ol' boy" network of outdated
regulations, fees, and lack of enforcement capabilities.
After the shutdown, I sent letter after
letter, calls and emails asking the question about my facility, "How can a
company get away with this?" ... to no response.
As a landowner, if the
operations and production on your property have ceased, you hope to have your
land returned to the way it was when you first leased to the operating
company. Unfortunately, in many cases, that doesn't happen.
You're forced to get legal counsel and spend a lot of your time tracking down companies that no longer exist, or individuals that have "written this one off" and scurried back to their out of state offices and gated communities, doing it all over again, and you're left with quite a mess on your hands.
You're forced to get legal counsel and spend a lot of your time tracking down companies that no longer exist, or individuals that have "written this one off" and scurried back to their out of state offices and gated communities, doing it all over again, and you're left with quite a mess on your hands.
Right now the Texas Railroad
Commission has $14.4 million dollars budgeted for fiscal year 2017 for site
remediation and well plugging, hoping to clear up 1,050 abandoned/orphaned
sites this year.
Why is that?
Why should the State have to set aside $14.4 million dollars to clean up a mess
left behind by irresponsible operators?
That's enough to add over 200 inspectors to the payroll to help police the industry. From Chris' article, it states the RRC estimates of $165 million dollars to plug/clean up over 10,000 abandoned/orphaned wells in Texas.
That's enough to add over 200 inspectors to the payroll to help police the industry. From Chris' article, it states the RRC estimates of $165 million dollars to plug/clean up over 10,000 abandoned/orphaned wells in Texas.
Think of the many
ways that money could be better spent!
We, as good stewards
of the Texas land, need to express the need to our State Representatives that
reform is necessary within the regulatory body of the Texas Railroad
Commission. Tell them fees need to be reviewed, and penalties for
poor operating procedures need to be enforceable to the letter of the law, up
to and including personal liability of the operating management if possible. It needs
to be made more difficult to abandon a site without accountability.
If you have
abandoned/orphaned wells or facilities on your property and cannot seem to find
any information or get answers to your questions, I want to hear from
you. I am working on a network of experts, including experienced
oil/gas related legal council, that can assist with such issues.
Again, these opinions
are my own, and I'm a firm believer in the exploration of oil/gas and other
energy alternatives in Texas. Let's just make sure we do it responsibly
and with accountability.
Thank you for visiting
Texas Online Radio, and I'll post regular updates to this subject or if you
have information or stories, please submit them.
Jeff
Contact info:
Jeff@TexasOnlineRadio.com
TexasOnlineRadio@Gmail.com
If you would like to
set up a meeting or speak on the phone, email your contact information.
Join my Facebook page: Texans
for Responsible Energy Exploration (TREE) which will be a grassroots
organization concentrating on responsible energy exploration in Texas and
assistance with abandoned/orphaned wells and facilities in the State.
ReplyDeleteHello there! I know this is somewhat off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could find a captcha plugin for my comment form? I'm using the same blog platform as yours and I'm having trouble finding one? Thanks a lot! www.gmail.com login
Thanks for post:
ReplyDeletevận chuyển gửi đồ sang brazil
ship gửi đồ tới brazil
chuyển phát tốc độ đi Bermuda
vận chuyển hàng hóa sang Malta
How beautifully all the feelings have been conveyed through writing.
ReplyDeleteCommercial heating
Wow, What a Excellent post. I really found this to much informatics. It is what i was searching for.I would like to suggest you that please keep sharing such type of info.Thanks balanced flue fireplaces
ReplyDeleteIs the home you want a renovation faraway from perfect. canada mortgage calculator SBA 7(a) loans can be found in fully amortized loans all the way to 20 or 25 years or so. mortgage payment calculator
ReplyDelete