(a)(1) This section may be referred to as the Oil and Gas Abandoned Well Plugging Fund Act. There is established within the Treasury of the State of West Virginia the special use fund known as the Oil and Gas Abandoned Well Plugging Fund.

Terms Used In West Virginia Code 22-6-29a

  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
  • Gas: means all natural gas and all other fluid hydrocarbons not defined as oil in this section. See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
  • Oil: means natural crude oil or petroleum and other hydrocarbons, regardless of gravity, which are produced at the well in liquid form by ordinary production methods and which are not the result of condensation of gas after it leaves the underground reservoirs. See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
  • operator: means any person or persons, firm, partnership, partnership association or corporation that proposes to or does locate, drill, operate or abandon any well as herein defined. See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
  • Secretary: means the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection as established in article one of this chapter or other person to whom the secretary has delegated authority or duties pursuant to sections six or eight, article one of this chapter. See West Virginia Code 22-6-1
  • State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
  • Well: means any shaft or hole sunk, drilled, bored or dug into the earth or into underground strata for the extraction or injection or placement of any liquid or gas, or any shaft or hole sunk or used in conjunction with such extraction or injection or placement. See West Virginia Code 22-6-1

(2) The Oil and Gas Abandoned Well Plugging Fund shall be administered by the secretary solely for the purposes of carrying out the provisions of this section.

(3) Any balance remaining in the Oil and Gas Abandoned Well Plugging Fund at the end of any state fiscal year does not revert to the General Revenue Fund but shall remain in the special revenue account and may be used only as provided in this section. The revenues deposited in the Oil and Gas Abandoned Well Plugging Fund may not be designated as nonaligned state special revenue funds under § 11B-2-32 of this code.

(b)(1) Using funds from the Oil and Gas Reclamation Fund and the Oil and Gas Abandoned Well Plugging Fund, the secretary shall plug and reclaim abandoned oil and gas wells without a responsible operator in accordance with plans and specifications developed pursuant to the provisions of this article relating to the plugging and reclamation of wells, and the rules establishing well plugging standards adopted thereunder.

(2) Funds from the Oil and Gas Abandoned Well Plugging Fund may only be used to plug abandoned oil and gas wells without a responsible operator and to reclaim the property disturbed from the plugging.

(3) On or before July 1 of each year, the secretary shall make an annual report to the Governor and the Legislature as to the use of the Oil and Gas Abandoned Well Plugging Fund and the Oil and Gas Reclamation Fund. The report shall include the balance in both funds on June 1 of each year. The secretary’s annual report shall set forth the number of wells reclaimed or plugged through the use of the Oil and Gas Reclamation Fund and the Oil and Gas Abandoned Well Plugging Fund in the previous year. The report shall identify each reclamation and plugging project, state the number of wells plugged thereby, show the county in which the wells are located, and make a detailed accounting of all expenditures from the Oil and Gas Reclamation Fund and from the Oil and Gas Abandoned Well Plugging Fund. The annual report shall also include a five-year plan detailing current and future projects and activities to plug and reclaim wells.

(4) Wells shall be plugged, and plugged wells reclaimed by contract entered into by the secretary on a competitive bid basis as provided for under the provisions of §5A-3-1 et seq. of this code and the rules promulgated thereunder.