In the first recent meeting of the Oklahoma House Energy Committee, members gave unanimous support to a bill called the Well Repurposing Act.
Rep. Nick Archer (R-Elk City) filed HB3173 to help address the state’s abandoned and orphaned well challenges. During the hearing, he cited a recent interim study by the committee.
“We all heard through that committee presentation by OCC that the orphan and abandoned well situation in the state, at the current plugging rates with the known number of wells on paper, it will take 200 years to get through that list.”
Oklahoma has an estimated 18,000 to 20,000 such wells and the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board has already plugged thousands of them.
Archer said his bill was intended to begin an exploration of ways to solve the abandoned well problem. The bill would allow firms to take over orphan and abandoned wells “for the purpose of geothermal or energy storage.”
“This is not a silver bullet. It is not magically going to cure our band and well program but I would argue If it gets five wells off the list, that’s five that we do not have to deal with as a state,” explained Rep. Archer.
Energy Committee members liked his bill and gave it a do-pass recommendation by a vote of 8-0.
As the bill stated, the decision of using an abandoned well for geothermal energy or energy storage would rest with the Corporation Commission.
“The Corporation Commission may authorize the conversion of an
oil or gas well into a facility that provides or supports energy
storage or geothermal energy development.”
The same category of abandoned wells could also be used for energy storage, according to the bill.
“An oil or gas well that is authorized by the Corporation
Commission pursuant to the Well Repurposing Act to be used for
energy storage and that is actively operated for energy storage
shall not be considered an inactive or abandoned well and shall be
considered a well that is being used for beneficial purposes.”
The measure also explained that if such an energy storage well is not used for 12 months, it would be plugged under the abandoned well rules and regulations.
An attempt was made in the 2025 session of the legislature to increase funding from the state for well plugging. But HB1370 did not make it into law. The bill, authored by Sen. Grant Green, R-Wellston and Rep. Brad Boles (R-Marlow) called for an expansion of the plugging fund from $2.5 million annually to up to $20 million.