Two environmental minded groups contend that Oklahoma would have been able to clean up hundreds more of orphan well sites had it not been for some major state oil and gas companies backing out of the voluntary funding program run by the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board.
Capital and Main along with ProPublica reported that the state could have restored another 1,500 such abandoned well sites had such majors as Chesapeake Energy, Continental Resources and Ovintiv not pulled out of the program.
“All told, dozens of oil companies received refunds worth about $11 million over the past seven years, ProPublica and Capital & Main found. Put another way, for every $100 the state brought in via this funding mechanism, it sent $8.58 back to oil companies,” reported the two organizations.
Click here for Capital & Main