American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2019 - 111

budget bill that will allow allocating $5
million a year from the oil and gas well
fund for the next two years to local governments. Hammond said the Kasich administration had pulled $70 million from
that fund.
"That was $70 million the state did not
utilize to plug the thousands of orphan
wells in Ohio," he related. "That really
starts to deteriorate the oil and gas well
fund, and eliminates the division's ability-and our members' ability-to plug wells."

Vice President Michael Pence, keynote
speaker during the Ohio Oil & Gas Association's annual meeting, tells the association the Trump administration is
fulfilling the president's promise to start
a new energy revolution.

to lease state-owned acreage to date."
Ascent Resources has identified as
many as 12 units through the next year
that it cannot develop because of stateowned highways, Finn said.
Pointing to his farming experience,
Peterson said he knew what it was like to
operate in a low commodity price environment, and expressed sympathy with
oil and gas operators in similar conditions.
He noted how longer laterals could make
a difference in a well's profitability.
"Anything the state could do to allow
you to do those longer runs and create
fewer disruptions on the surface is a win
for everybody," Peterson considered. "Bring
me a map and show me the problems you
are having. I want all these highways to
continue to operate with flowing traffic,
but I don't know why you can't drill for
gas or oil underneath them."
Idle And Orphan Wells
A bill enacted in 2018 increased from
14 to 30 percent a year the usable proportion of Ohio's idle and orphan well
plugging fund, which is sourced by revenues collected from the oil and gas industry, Peterson observed
One bureaucratic hurdle in the legislation, Hammond suggested, was its paperwork requirements, which sometimes reach
100 pages. "Our folks are interested in
plugging these wells, but they don't necessarily have the manpower to go through
that process and bid on these projects," he
said. "We have been talking to ODNR
about streamlining the process, to make it
easier to go out and plug these wells."
According to Hammond, OOGA is
opposing a provision in the transportation

Plugging Those Wells
During a panel discussion on well
plugging, Brittney Colvin, deputy director
of the Ohio Division of Natural Resources,
told OOGA that thanks to 2018's HB
225, her agency had more than $20 million
on hand for plugging orphan wells. She
described the program as "one of the few
win/win/win items that we have between
us, the industry and environmental groups."
Rick Simmers, chief of ODNR's Division of Oil and Gas Resource Management, said HB 225 revised the orphan
well program's funding, including its
origin and spending allotment. He noted
the agency was on track to spend $10
million-$12 million for plugging operations in fiscal year 2019, which he projected would double the number of wells
that were plugged in 2018.
HB 225 also added a landowner passthrough program, which reduces the state's
involvement in the plugging process, he
reported. Landowners can sign an agreement to plug wells on their property with
a contractor, and have the state guarantee
to pay for the plugging, Simmers de-

scribed. The agency also has unveiled a
contract rigs program, Simmers said, and
was looking for businesses willing to bid
on plugging packages for their rigs, crews
and service equipment.
Gene Chini, DOGRM's orphan well
manager, asked more companies to bid
on those plugging contracts, noting that
out of 45 companies preapproved for
such work in Ohio, only 10 had been
bidding.
Washington Update
Providing OOGA with a national perspective, keynote speaker Vice President
Michael Pence praised association members for continuing the nation's tradition
of developing its natural resources.
"Early in his administration, President
Trump promised the American people that
we were, in his words, going to start a
new energy revolution, one that celebrates
American production on American soil.
And President Trump delivered. We approved the Keystone and Dakota pipelines,
we withdrew the United States from the
job-killing Paris climate accord, eliminated
the hydraulic fracturing rule, rolled back
methane rules, ended the Clean Power
Plan, scrapped the stream protection rule,
and now under President Donald Trump,
the war on coal is over," he said.
President Trump has repealed more
federal red tape than any president in
U.S. history, delivered more than $33
billion in regulatory savings to business
owners, signed the country's largest tax
cut and tax reform package, and eliminated
the estate tax for more small business
owners, Pence praised.

Providing an update on Ohio's well plugging program are, from left, Duane Clark, chairman
of the Ohio Oil & Gas Association's Producer Committee; Brittney Colvin, deputy director
of the Ohio Division of Natural Resources; and Rick Simmers, chief of ODNR's Division of
Oil and Gas Resource Management. The panel discussion was part of OOGA's annual
convention, held March 6-8 in Columbus, Oh.

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