When drilling for oil in North Dakota, land reclamation a must
February 27, 2013 at 6:00 pm in The Dickinson Press
Restoring the land to its original state after oil drilling ceases is a necessary step in energy production, particularly in North Dakota, where reclamation is law. Continue Reading
Betsy…I hope you do your due diligence when writing this article. Talk to the landowners…in ND in 2009 there were about 300 wells that were listed as plugged and abandoned NOT RECLAIMED…Call Lynn Helms and ask him for the current list…Hess in McKenzie County had dozens of wells ion temporarily abandoned. It use to be that they only had to apply to the state for that status and there are wells out there that have been on that status for decades tying up the landowner and the mineral owner. Now there is a small fee to get that status. In 2009 bill was passed that required reclamation after 1 year. I cant remember the details right off but that bill passed because I was there when it did. After that 1 year there was the possibility of seizure of assets to pay for total reclamation if the st.ate had to step in and do the plugging and reclamation. At that time it was about 70K to plug and reclaim a well back to usable land. I hope that I have given you enough information to at least look into the other side…the landowner side and the mineral owner side. Those leases that were done decades ago are still in force on wells that have not produced a drop of oil for a very long time. The well may be drilled in a formation outside the bakken. If the well was reclaimed the lease would be defunct and the mineral owner would be able to lease those minerals now and possibly make some money from the boom. I am done now.
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