AOGCC says $53 million in federal funds will support orphan-well plugging as bonding rules tighten

The Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission told attendees that it has been awarded about $53,000,000 in federal funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to plug and abandon orphan wells across Alaska and has contracted with ASRC to carry out plugging and site remediation work.

"Since the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was passed in 2021, the AOGCC has been awarded over $53,000,000 from the federal government to plug and abandon Alaska's orphan wells, and we have contracted with ASRC to perform the well plugging and site remediation," Commissioner Jessie Chmielewski said.

Commissioners described several on-the-ground examples: a well being plugged near a Chickaloon home, a recent plug near Eureka Summit on the Parks Highway, and a large historic project at the Catalla (turn-of-the-century) field that will require coordination with the Bureau of Land Management.

Asked how many abandoned wells are on the agency's list, Chmielewski said the AOGCC had "about 44 wells" on an older list and has plugged approximately seven so far in Southcentral. She described typical plugging work: excavating around the old site, welding on a new wellhead and blowout preventer, removing debris, running casing and setting a deep cement plug followed by a shallow plug, then cutting below the surface and evaluating the site for remediation.

Chmielewski also reviewed bonding reforms implemented during a prior commissioner's tenure. The agency moved from a prior statewide-bond example of $200,000 to a tiered system with higher overall liability: top-tier operators have a total bond around $30,000,000; smaller operators see a first-well bond of roughly $400,000 and graduated steps for subsequent wells. She cautioned that bonds "are not able to plug every single well" but provide greater assurances, particularly for smaller operators.

Commissioners said orphan-well work requires due diligence to ensure no potentially responsible party exists, and that some historic records are incomplete, which complicates site work and costs.