The orphan well program identifies, prioritizes, and addresses oil and gas wells, locations, and production facilities statewide for which there are no known responsible parties (orphaned wells or…

The U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) awarded a $1,358,962.65 Cooperative Agreement to the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, acting through its Executive Director's Office, to implement the Orphan Well Program. This program identifies, prioritizes, and addresses orphaned oil and gas wells, locations, and production facilities across Colorado. The funding will be used to plug wells, remove equipment and debris, investigate and remediate soil and groundwater impacts, and reclaim well pads, production sites, and access roads at orphaned sites. The work will be performed in compliance with Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission rules and industry standards, as well as more stringent BLM standards as applicable. The program aims to protect public health, safety, the environment, and wildlife resources in areas with federal surface or mineral interests, including split estate lands. This effort is funded under the BLM's Environmental Quality and Protection Program (CFDA 15.236), which supports projects that mitigate hazards and restore watersheds on public lands.

The orphan well program identifies, prioritizes, and addresses oil and gas wells, locations, and production facilities statewide for which there are no known responsible parties (orphaned wells or sites) or for which financial assurance instruments or bonds have been claimed. If not addressed, these oil and gas locations may impair a surface owners farming or ranching activity or other use of the property, harm wildlife, pose risks to the environment, or present a safety hazard to the public. The orphaned well program plugs wells, removes production equipment and debris, investigates and remediates soil and groundwater impacts, installs safety equipment such as fences, signs, and locks or tags, and reclaims well pads, remote production sites, and access roads at orphaned sites. Colorado oil gas conservation commissions (cogcc) rules, regulations, policies, and industry standards provide guidance for the orphaned well program. With this agreement, work will also be performed to BLM standards or standards of the surface management agency, if those standards are more stringent than cogccs rules. The colorado oil and gas conservation commission will use the grant funds to plug, reclaim, and remediate orphaned wells and sites in a manner that protects public health, safety, welfare, the environment and wildlife resources. Specific wells to be addressed with the funding are on sites with federal surface or federal minerals. This includes split estate sites that 1) have federal surface and private or state minerals, and sites that 2) have private or state surface and federal minerals. Restoration of associated land will benefit all stakeholders that use lands near the orphaned well sites by removing hazardous legacy facilities, including any facilities that may be present in disproportionately impacted communities (DIC).orphaned well program projects will be performed in phases: 1) site security equipment removal, salvage, and disposal 2) well plugging and flowline abandonment 3) environmental investigations and remediation and 4) surface reclamation. Some phases may be performed concurrently, and often work may proceed to the next phase without delay. Program staff are responsible for design and implementation of all phases of work and for ensuring that the work complies with cogccs rules, policies, and industry professional standards.cogccs bond claim orders involving federal sites often declare those sites and any wells located on those sites to be orphaned before they are considered orphan wells by BLM. This agreement will include work at federal sites that are not yet orphaned. Cogcc expects that we will meet with BLM quarterly to identify groups of sites for solicitations and review progress for ongoing projects. Cogcc will provide information, such as owps site scoring and ranking, the location of the site within a DIC or a watershed, and the location of the site within a BLM wilderness area, using blms GIS dataset. Based on these factors or other factors identified by BLM, we will collectively define a group of sites to be included in the solicitation. Cogcc will provide quarterly and annual reports to summarize progress.