OERB Completes Number 15,000 Abandoned Well Site







The Oklahoma Energy Resources Board is preparing to observe what it calls a “significant milestone,”….the completion and cleanup of its 15,000th abandoned well site in the state.

It plans a special ceremony on April 13 at the site just east of the Bricktown Fire Station in Oklahoma City. The site is to be developed into a new Oklahoma City hotel.

The site was cleaned up under the OERB’s restoration program where it has spent $100 million from the state’s oil and gas producers over the past years, voluntarily cleaning up orphaned and abandoned well sites statewide. The program was started in 1994 as an economic remedy for environmental problems caused by the old sites.

In most cases, workers remove or bury lease roads and location pads, remove old equipment, concrete and trash and repair saltwater scars left on the land. Pits are also closed and hydrocarbons are treated.

The work has yielded thousands of acres of clean Oklahoma land, now used for family farming, community parks, fishing ponds and more, according to an announcement by the OERB.