West Virginia Senate Bill 532

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Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 4-2)
Status: Introduced on January 24 2024 - 25% progression
Action: 2024-01-24 - To Energy, Industry, and Mining
Pending: Senate Energy, Industry and Mining Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Introduced) [HTML]

The purpose of this bill is to prevent oil and gas wells form being orphaned on surface owner's land with no responsible driller or operator with the resources to plug the well. The bill: -Does not make any changes in bonding requirements for wells that are not producing in paying quantities. -Requires new wells to either post a single well, full cost plugging bond, or to start at the beginning of production to set aside money in an interest bearing account in the State Treasurer's office to plug the well at the end of its life. -Requires transferred wells either to post a single well, full cost plugging bond or to start setting aside money in an interest bearing account in the State Treasurer's office to plug the well. -Requires existing wells that are producing in paying quantities to set aside 15 cents per MCF in the State Treasurer's office to plug the well. -Requires operators to plug wells that were in violation of the law before that operator transferred the well to another operator if the new owner of the well does not plug the well. -Allows the owners of the surface where the well is located to defer the plugging of the well as long as that surface owner owns the land, and as long as the well is not causing environmental etc. problems. -Requires an operator drilling a new well to plug all orphaned and abandoned wells in the well's drainage area, and authorizes that driller to recover the cost from any responsible operator of the well.

Orphan Oil and Gas Well Prevention Act of 2024

Sen. Randy Smith [R]	Sen. Michael Caputo [D]	Sen. David Stover [R]	Sen. Bill Hamilton [R]
Sen. Mike Woelfel [D]	Sen. Jack Woodrum [R]

Date	Chamber	Action
2024-01-24	Senate	To Energy, Industry, and Mining
2024-01-24	Senate	Introduced in Senate
2024-01-24	Senate	To Energy, Industry, and Mining then Finance
2024-01-24	Senate	Filed for introduction

HB5414 (Similar To) 2024-02-01 - To House Energy and Manufacturing

Chapter	Article	Section	Citation Type	Statute Text
22	10A	1	New Code	See Bill Text
22	10A	2	New Code	See Bill Text
22	10A	3	New Code	See Bill Text
22	10A	4	New Code	See Bill Text
22	10A	5	New Code	See Bill Text
22	10A	6	New Code	See Bill Text
22	10A	7	New Code	See Bill Text
22	10A	8	New Code	See Bill Text
22	10A	9	New Code	See Bill Text

Type	Source
Summary	http://www.wvlegislature.gov/Bill_Status/Bills_history.cfm?input=532&year=2024&sessiontype=RS&btype=bill
Text	http://www.wvlegislature.gov/Bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=sb532%20intr.htm&yr=2024&sesstype=RS&i=532
Supplement	http://www.wvlegislature.gov/Fiscalnotes/FN(2)/fnsubmit_recordview1.cfm?RecordID=891702829