Current Problems
Idle Wells Management Program
The Idle Wells Management Plan (IWMP) program was implemented under AB 2729 Under the IWMP program, operators with 250 or fewer long-term idle wells must decommission at least 4% of such wells per year, 5% for operators with 251 to 1,250 long-term idle wells, and 6% for operators with over 1,250 long-term idle wells. The percentage of wells mandated for decommission resets every five years, slowing the rate in which wells are actually plugged.
According to agency-published reports and data collected via a Public Records Act request, the IWMP program resulted in the plugging and abandoning of only 3,041 total wells between 2018 to 2022. This is less than 2% of all idle wells per year in California as of April 2023.
Since the program began, the total number of idle wells in California has grown from 29,292 in 2018 to 36,530 today. The number of idle wells plugged and abandoned under the Idle Wells Management Program has fallen almost every year since the program went into place. In 2021, only half as many wells were eliminated as in 2018.
Idle Wells under AB 2729
Major trade associations like the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) and California Independent Petroleum Association (CIPA) lobbied for the version of AB 2729 which became law, enabling operators to pay a nominal fee of $150-$1,500 per year rather than paying to plug and remediate their idle wells. The highest rate of $1,500 per year is only imposed for long-term idle wells that sit idle for eight years or more. It is cheaper for polluters to pay this fee than to pay to plug their wells.
Public Resources Code § 3008(d) does not label a well inactive until two years of non-productivity. This allows idle wells to sit for long periods of time before they can be addressed and properly plugged.
1996 Orphan Wells Cleanup Cutoff
Public Resource Code § 3237 enables the state to hold predecessor owners of orphaned oil and gas wells dating back to 1996 accountable for well cleanup costs. The law reads that "The supervisor may continue to look to previous operators until an operator is found that the supervisor determines has the financial resources to cover the cost of plugging and abandoning the well or decommissioning deserted production facilities” going back to the 1996 ownership date. The 1996 date is an issue, as many in-state wells were previously owned and transferred by oil majors to smaller companies prior to that year.