new-orphan-wells/docs/data-sources.md

Data Sources and Provenance

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Primary Dataset: USGS Documented Unplugged Orphaned Oil and Gas Wells (DOW)

Citation: Grove, C.A., and Merrill, M.D., 2022, United States Documented Unplugged Orphaned Oil and Gas Well Dataset: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P91PJETI.

Related report: Merrill, M.D., Grove, C.A., Gianoutsos, N.J., and Freeman, P.A., 2023, Analysis of the United States documented unplugged orphaned oil and gas well dataset: U.S. Geological Survey Data Report 1167, 10 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/dr1167.

ScienceBase item: https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/62ebd67bd34eacf539724c56 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5066/P91PJETI Interactive map: https://energy.usgs.gov/usdowdb Published: August 22, 2022 Data currency: July 1, 2019 – June 2, 2022

Coverage

• 117,672 wells in 27 states
• States: AL, AK, AR, CA, CO, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MI, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NM, NY, ND, OH, OK, PA, TN, TX, UT, WV, WY

Orphaned Well Definition

Varies by state. Included if state designates as orphaned, or if ALL of the following apply:

1. No production for average of 12 months (6–24 months depending on state)
2. Well is unplugged
3. No responsible party for future use or plugging
4. Location is documented

Data Collection Method

• Direct requests to state oil and gas regulatory agencies (email, phone, or website download)
• Location format conversion performed using BLM Township Decoder and KGS LEO 7.0 (Kansas and Montana only)
• No other manipulations beyond reformatting and explanatory notes

State Agencies (27 sources)

State	Agency	Data Description
AL	Alabama Oil and Gas Board	Abandoned wells
AK	Alaska Oil and Gas Compact Commission	Orphan wells
AR	Arkansas Dept. of Transformation and Shared Services GIS	Abandoned orphan wells
CA	CA Dept. of Conservation, Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM)	Idle wells
CO	Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission	Orphan wells
IL	Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources	Temporarily abandoned wells
IN	Indiana Dept. of Natural Resources	Orphan abandoned wells
KS	Kansas Corporation Commission	Abandoned wells
KY	Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet	Orphan wells
LA	Louisiana Dept. of Natural Resources	Orphan wells
MI	Michigan Dept. of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE)	Orphan wells
MS	Mississippi State Oil and Gas Board	Orphan and potentially orphan wells
MO	Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources	Orphan and abandoned wells
MT	Montana Board of Oil & Gas Conservation	Orphan wells
NE	Nebraska Oil & Gas Conservation Commission	Abandoned and shut-in wells
NV	Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology	Abandoned and shut-in wells
NM	New Mexico Oil Conservation Division	Orphan wells
NY	NY State Dept. of Environmental Conservation	Unknown status wells
ND	North Dakota Dept. of Mineral Resources	Abandoned wells
OH	Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources	Orphan and potential orphan wells
OK	Oklahoma Corporation Commission, Oil and Gas Conservation	Orphan wells
PA	Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection	Orphan wells
TN	Tennessee Dept. of Environment and Conservation	Forfeited wells
TX	Texas Railroad Commission	Orphan wells
UT	Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining	Orphan wells
WV	West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection	Abandoned wells
WY	Wyoming Oil & Gas Conservation Commission	Orphan wells

Data Quality Notes

Coordinate accuracy: No formal positional accuracy tests were conducted. Coordinates are state-provided. Some were converted from PLSS descriptions using BLM/KGS tools (KS, MT).

Type field completeness: 9 states submitted data without type classification (blank field): OH, PA, KY, KS, IN, NM, TN, AK, and Oklahoma has ~1,081 blank rows. These are coded Unknown/Unspecified in well_type_normalized. This is a source-data limitation, not a processing error.

Status terminology: Status language is not standardized across states. Ranges from "Abandoned Orphaned Well" (explicit) to "AB" (code), "Idle" (CA usage), or state-specific terms. Do not compare status values cross-state without normalization.

Alaska wells (12): Very small count; Alaska data may underrepresent actual orphaned well inventory.

California wells (3,338): Classified as "Idle" per CalGEM definition — California's statutory definition of idle wells differs from other states' orphan definitions. May warrant separate treatment in analysis.

File checksums (MD5):

• US_orphaned_wells.csv: 52539416efe461884034fb8d9bb184b2
• US_orphaned_wells.zip: 5a454abeae6d11bd837e3c5c29cb1ea0
• US_orphaned_wells.xml: 1122b28bb82aea35c880f643c3570335

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Census Tracts: 2021 TIGER/Line Cartographic Boundary File

Source: U.S. Census Bureau File: cb_2021_us_tract_500k (1:500,000 scale) Coverage: 85,230 tracts, all 50 states + DC + territories CRS: NAD83 (EPSG:4269), reprojected to WGS84 (EPSG:4326) for database storage Vintage: 2021 (aligns with 2017–2021 ACS 5-year estimates) Download: https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/time-series/geo/cartographic-boundary.html

Spatial Join Notes

• 117,156 of 117,672 wells (99.6%) matched via ST_Within
• 516 wells on tract boundaries resolved via ST_DWithin (5km) then KNN (<->)
• 4 wells on state borders were misassigned to neighboring state tracts and manually corrected to match USGS state attribution

ACS Join Key

Use wells.tract_geoid (= census_tracts.geoid, 11-digit FIPS) to join to any ACS table. The 2021 5-year estimates are the recommended vintage.

Suggested ACS tables for EJ analysis:

Table	Content
B19013	Median household income
B03002	Race and Hispanic/Latino origin
B17001	Poverty status
B25035	Median year structure built (housing age proxy)
B23025	Employment status
B15003	Educational attainment

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Plugging Cost Estimates

Raimi et al. (2021) — Primary Reference

Citation: Raimi, D., Krupnick, A., Shah, J.S., and Thompson, A., 2021, Decommissioning Orphaned and Abandoned Oil and Gas Wells: New Estimates and Cost Drivers. Environmental Science & Technology, 55(15), 10224–10230. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.1c02234

Organization: Resources for the Future (RFF) Estimates: Low $9,000 / Median $76,000 / High $280,000 per well Method: Bottom-up engineering cost model using 2.1 million documented wells; variables include depth, casing, age, location, regulatory requirements. Scope: National (onshore U.S.) Use in this project: Primary basis for state_liability calculated fields.

EPA OLEM (2018)

Older EPA estimate widely cited in policy documents. Central estimate $25,000. Considered low by most recent literature due to pre-inflation data and exclusion of complex well types. Use with caution.

Carbon Tracker (2020)

Citation: Carbon Tracker Initiative, 2020. Fault Lines: How Diverging Oil and Gas Company Strategies Link to Stranded Asset Risk. Emphasizes investor/financial risk framing; useful for Chapter 5 stranded asset discussion.

IOGCC (2023)

State-reported figures aggregated by the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission. Methodology varies significantly by state; use for within-state comparisons, not cross-state.

Pennsylvania DEP (2022)

Actual program expenditure data from PA DEP plugging contracts 2016–2022. Mid estimate $68,000. PA is one of the most data-rich state programs and can serve as a benchmark for high-documentation states.

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IIJA / Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Funding

Legislation: Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), Public Law 117-58, signed November 15, 2021 Program: Orphaned Well Site Plugging, Remediation, and Restoration Program Administering agency: Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), Dept. of the Interior Total appropriation: $4.7 billion over 5 years

Program Structure

Phase	Amount	Mechanism	Status
Initial grants	$25 million	Formula to states with existing programs	Announced 2021
Phase 1 formula grants	$150 million	Formula based on documented well counts	Announced Nov 2022
Phase 2 performance grants	$4.275 billion	Competitive, based on state plugging performance	Ongoing
Federal lands	$115 million	OSMRE direct plugging on federal land	Ongoing

Phase 1 per-state allocations in state_liability.iija_phase1_formula_usd are approximate figures from DOI press releases (Nov 2022). Verify exact amounts from official OSMRE grant letters before publication. Source: https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases

Coverage Gap

Using Raimi et al. (2021) median estimates ($76,000/well × 117,672 wells):

• Estimated national liability: ~$8.94 billion
• IIJA Phase 1 total: ~$310 million
• Coverage: ~3.5% of median estimated liability

This gap is the central financial argument of Chapter 5.

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State Governance Data (RA-collected)

Transition Offices

Source: Climate Policy Dashboard — Just Transition Offices and Staff https://www.climatepolicydashboard.org/policies/climate-governance-equity/just-transition-offices-and-staff Coding protocol: See Undergrad Student Instructions.md in project research files Coded by: Julian Tong, RA PI supervision: Dr. David P. Adams

Plugging Prioritization Schemes

Source: IOGCC Prioritization Report, July 10, 2023 https://oklahoma.gov/content/dam/ok/en/iogcc/documents/publications/prioritization_report_7.10.23.pdf Coding protocol: See Undergrad Student Instructions.md Coded by: Julian Tong, RA

Theoretical Framework

The engineering/justice typology (Adams) classifies state prioritization approaches:

• Engineering: Prioritizes technical risk factors (methane, groundwater, pressure) without explicit equity/density dimensions
• Justice: Explicitly incorporates DAC scores, EJ indexes, or disadvantaged community status into scoring
• Mixed (density-aware): Uses population density or urban/rural classification but not explicit EJ language

The v_state_governance.framework_type column implements this classification automatically from RA-coded variables.