UNSPSC 71122409: Surface well testing services

Services to include exploration well testing, clean up or flow backs and inline testing of existing wells. Includes flowing the well through temporary production facilities while pressure, temperature and flow rate measurements are made.

UNSPSC 71122409 Surface well testing services, a Commodity code, frames a narrow scope that recent state and local solicitations do not align with—the posted opportunities center on orphan well plugging, water well drilling and construction, irrigation system installation, pump station work, and well rehabilitation rather than testing services per se. Michigan's Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), the Mississippi Oil and Gas Board, and several city and county water utilities dominate the recent activity, posting multiple orphan-well plugging RFPs and direct solicitations, along with new water-supply well construction and maintenance contracts. Geographic concentration appears strongest in Michigan (with 12+ recent orphan-well plugging solicitations across Gratiot and Montcalm Counties), Mississippi (orphan-well plugging in Jasper, Jones, Adams, and Walthall Counties), Florida (irrigation, landfill monitoring, and wastewater pump stations), Georgia (well rehabilitation and new deep wells), and scattered activity in Illinois, Texas, Colorado, and Oregon. Representative recent opportunities include the Michigan EGLE Gilbert Orphan Well Plugging project (October 2026, direct solicitation, restricted to prequalified vendors, federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding with Davis-Bacon prevailing wage requirements), the Mississippi Oil and Gas Board's nine-well orphan-well plugging IFB in Jasper and Jones Counties (bids due December 18, 2026, mandatory pre-bid October 22, mandatory compliance with Build America Buy America Act), the City of Albany, Georgia well rehabilitation IFB (sealed bids due November 16, 2026), and Hillsborough County's Wet Well Wizard aeration systems sole-source procurement ($5.371 million over five years at $13,350 per unit).

The code shows minimal recent true "surface well testing" work. Instead, state and local bodies are procuring comprehensive well construction, abandonment, plugging, maintenance, and pump-station services, often federally funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act's orphan-well program or state revolving funds. Issuing bodies span state environmental and natural resources departments, county utilities and water districts, city water departments, parks and recreation bureaus, and special-purpose districts. The work is highly specialized—many solicitations restrict bidding to prequalified contractors, require Davis-Bacon or prevailing wage compliance, mandate specific licensing (Florida FDEP water well contractor licenses, Michigan Clean Corporate Citizen designation, Mississippi business licenses), and impose substantial insurance, bonding, and safety requirements. Set-asides appear seldom—the Illinois Department of Natural Resources posted a Small Business set-aside for the Union County SFWA well installation, and Michigan's EGLE considers qualified disabled veterans and service-disabled veteran-owned business status. Cost ranges vary sharply: the City of DeBary's irrigation project was $90,000 with liquidated damages at $884 per day; Michigan's prequalified five-vendor oil-and-gas pool totaled $800,000; Mississippi's nine-well orphan-well project implied higher costs through complex pricing matrices; Boulder County's six-well agricultural stock-water project was $350,000. This code presents pursuit opportunity for firms with well drilling, well abandonment, pump installation, and specialized environmental remediation expertise, particularly those seeking federal and state environmental restoration funding or work with water utilities on capital infrastructure.