Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham announced Aug. 10 that the Texas General Land Office and the Railroad Commission of Texas have plugged 42 orphaned wells on state-owned submerged land, including 16 wells off High Island in Jefferson County, as part of the agencies’ ongoing statewide Coastal Protection Project, according to a news release from the GLO.
The milestone marks continued progress in a multiyear effort to remove aging, abandoned oil and gas infrastructure that threatens Texas bays and coastal waters with leaks and spills.
“As a Texan who grew up along our beautiful coast and as Land Commissioner, I am deeply committed to protecting Texas’s coastal waters for the communities and families whose economies and livelihoods depend on healthy marine habitats,” Buckingham said in the release. “I am thrilled with the progress the RRC, GLO, and the project contractors have made to safely plug these wells and protect the health and safety of the Texas coast.”
As of July 31, Railroad Commission contractors reported that 42 wells had been successfully plugged and that flowlines had been flushed and removed from all 42, with additional plugging work continuing through the year, according to the release.
The effort traces to 2023, when the GLO under Buckingham entered a memorandum of understanding with the Railroad Commission providing $10 million in funding to plug 47 abandoned wells in Trinity Bay, the agency said. Earlier this year, the two agencies began inspecting six orphan wells in Baffin Bay and found three of them leaking; when the wells continued to leak after repairs, the Railroad Commission concluded they needed to be completely plugged and removed.
While the Railroad Commission holds the authority to plug wells, the GLO is responsible for preventing and responding to oil spills in the state’s coastal bay systems through its Oil Spill Prevention and Response program, the release noted. The agency said it stands ready to support the removal of aging infrastructure that contributes to coastal oil spills.