The North Dakota Industrial Commission approved a plan to spend $33.2 million in federal CARES Act funds towards a program that will reclaim abandoned and orphan oil well sites.
“We believe we will employ probably close to 600 North Dakota CAT operators, dirt work people, roustabouts, restoration of these sites,” Lynn Helms, director of the Department of Mineral Resources, said. “The goal will be by the time winter arrives that all the wells that have been plugged plus 53 non-well sites will have been demolished and all the equipment removed.”
Helms said the reclamation work is “Phase 2” of another program aimed at plugging hundreds of orphan and abandoned wells. Helms added it’s a great use of the tax payer dollars.
North Dakota’s program is becoming a model for the nation according to many within the industry. Helm said the US Department of Energy is developing a plan to spend $1.8 billion over three years plugging some of the 57,000 abandoned wells scattered throughout the county.
According to Helms the program will restore about 2,000 acres of land that can be used for agricultural purposes in the future. In addition to the federal dollars, the reclamation program will use $5 million from the Abandoned Well Plugging Site Restoration Fund and $3 million from single well bonds.
The program still requires approval of the legislature’s Budget Section, which is scheduled to meet next week.
The Department of Mineral Resources will be putting bid packages together for the plugging and reclamation work. More details about these bid packages will be available at www.dmr.nd.gov/oilgas.
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