By Ella George
Background
Natural gas, along with its extraction and sale, are at the forefront of Ohio’s politics and economy. According to the Ohio Natural Energy Institute (ONEI), this state alone produced over 19.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from 2010 to 2023. In 2023, ONEI valued Ohio’s oil and gas resources at an estimated $5,906,856,869.
Oil and gas extraction began in Ohio in 1886 as part of the Appalachian oil fields that also spanned Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Indiana. Since then, more than 270,000 oil and gas wells have been drilled in Ohio.
Today gas and oil are extracted from three rock formations in the area – the Point Pleasant, Utica, and Marcellus shale plays. Hydrocarbons created from the decay of plant and animals that lived and died hundreds of millions of years ago are now being sold for $10.66 per thousand cubic feet.
Orphan Well Program
As the oil and gas sector in Ohio grew, the state began regulatory oversight of drilling operations to deal with the negative environmental impact of used and abandoned oil and gas wells. The Division of Oil and Gas Resources was set up in 1965 within the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to supervise Ohio’s oil and natural gas industry.
However, it was not until 1977 that Ohio set up its Orphan Well Program to deal with wells that had been deserted without being plugged or cleaned up — also referred to as orphaned wells. The legal structure behind this initiative is embodied in Ohio Revised Code § 1509.071 which initiated the Orphan Well Program and placed the Division in charge of plugging orphan wells, land surface restoration, and correction of conditions that pose imminent health or safety risks.
Funding
The financial backing for these projects mainly comes from the Oil and Gas Well Fund. This fund derives 90% of its revenue from severance taxes on oil and natural gas extraction by vertical wells not involved in hydraulic fracturing. In addition, it also receives some money through regulatory fees, drilling permit fees, and civil penalties for violations.
Expenditures needed for this program have changed over time. At first, during fiscal year 2011 the state required the Division to spend 14% of the previous year’s Oil and Gas Well Fund revenue on plugging orphan wells. However, House Bill 225 of the 132nd General Assembly in 2018 later increased this requirement to 30%, which was made effective starting fiscal year 2019.
In 2023, Ohio received an initial grant of $25 million to plug orphan wells through the IIJA and expects to receive $326 million in total federal funding through 2030. This funding is referenced in Ohio’s compliance plan and will be utilized along with the required minimum spending.
Orphan Well Hazards
Orphan wells are wells that have been used and abandoned, with some having no owner to claim them due to their age. Because all the petroleum products in a rock bed can never be completely extracted, what is left after extraction may rise naturally to the surface. Abandoned wells act like straws, sometimes with cracks along the middle, connecting underground oil and gas layers to water reserves, our soil, and the atmosphere. Because of seepage, drinking water sources can become polluted and harmful substances can also be released into the air.
Wells that are not plugged or not properly plugged are the main way gases and fluids can move from the wellbore to the surface. The infrastructure of the well deteriorates due to the corrosive fluids in the subsurface, delamination of the casing and the cement, damage from seismic activity, and even new fracture networks created by hydraulic fracturing of the nearby wells.
The 2023 ODNR Orphan Well Program Annual Report shows vivid images of the dangers these wells can pose: the Appalachia Ohio Alliance #1 well in Hocking County was leaking toxic oil and gas brine over an area 20 feet wide and 150 feet long, which was draining into Clear Fork Creek and killing vegetation across the area. In Pike County, the Henry Stahler #2 well drilled in 1925 was losing gas, oil, and fluids into a nearby stream for years before it was plugged.
Global Pollution
Methane emissions from orphan wells pose an especially serious threat to the global climate. Methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas, with warming potency 25 times that of carbon dioxide over 100 years, and 80 times more over 20 years. Over 6 teragrams of methane, or over 6 million metric tons, leak from abandoned and orphaned wells annually, according to Opara and Okere.
According to Gianoutsos et al., there are about 120,000 known orphaned wells in the United States, while the number of unregistered wells may be close to 1 million. Ohio has the second-highest number of reported orphan wells at 20,557. Most of the methane emissions are produced by only about 10% of abandoned wells, while the rest have almost no emissions. This highlights the importance of finding and plugging wells that are emitting the most methane.
While failures in well integrity are the main concern for orphan wells, there is a very wide variation in datasets from around the world, with reported failure rates between 1.9% and 75%. In the Pennsylvania Marcellus gas drilling area, a total of 8,030 wells were examined from 2005 to 2013, with 6.3 % experiencing well barrier or integrity infractions.
Orphan Well Subprograms
Ohio’s Orphan Well Program has expanded significantly since its creation in 1977 and now operates through three distinct subprograms.
The Traditional Program begins when a landowner, hunter, hiker, or anyone who finds an orphan well reports it to ODNR. If Division staff finds the well has no legal owner, they then score the well for priority in plugging using a matrix based on geographic location and other criteria. Plugging contracts are awarded through the state’s competitive bidding process. This has been the primary mechanism for plugging orphan wells throughout the program’s history.
The Landowner Pass-Through Program, activated in fiscal year 2021 following approval from the Technical Advisory Council, allows landowners to expedite the plugging of wells on their property that may not score high on the Division’s priority matrix. Under this program, landowners work directly with contractors, and the Division provides reimbursement once the work is completed.
The Federal Program, funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) of 2021, is administered by Division staff and consultants with projects awarded through Construction Manager at Risk. This process provides the contractor with substantial discretion and authority to plan, direct, and manage all phases of the project, and is designed to attract larger companies.
Program results
Ohio’s Orphan Well Program has grown substantially over the past several years. Prior to House Bill 225 in 2018, the program typically spent about $1.5 million annually to plug only 10 to 20 wells. By fiscal year 2021, the Division had encumbered $15.9 million for202 wells, and by fiscal year 2022, this increased to $24.9 million for 223 wells under the Traditional Program alone.
In 2023, the Orphan Well Program averaged 16 rigs actively plugging orphan wells each week, with extended periods when this number exceeded 20 rigs. The costs associated with plugging have also increased considerably. The average plugging cost per well in calendar year 2023 was $84,848 under the Traditional Program, an 8% increase from 2022.
For wells plugged under federal funding through Construction Managers at Risk, the average cost was substantially higher at $319,405 per well, reflecting the complexity of wells selected for federal projects and associated management fees. This is consistent with national research showing median decommissioning costs of roughly $20,000 for plugging only and $76,000 for plugging with surface reclamation, with rare cases exceeding $1 million per well.
Compliance Challenges
Despite significant growth, the Division has historically struggled to meet spending requirements for plugging orphan wells established in Ohio Revised Code §1509.071, according to a 2022 state performance audit. In fiscal year 2021, the Division spent $11.2 million when the requirement was over $22 million, achieving only 50% of the mandated target.
The primary challenge was contractor workforce shortages. Between fiscal years 2018 and 2022, the Division awarded contracts to plug 796 wells, yet 249 remained unplugged because contractors could not find qualified workers to complete the work within typical one-year contract periods.
In response to the 2022 performance audit, the Division developed a compliance plan with four key action items:
- Working directly with existing contractors to remove barriers to timely performance of work.
- Attracting new contractors by creating new types of opportunities through program modifications including change orders for unanticipated conditions.
- Using orphan well funds for locating wells with drones and magnetometers and designing plugging plans, which was previously not counted toward the 30% requirement.
- Implementing systems to track all direct and indirect costs including staff wages and ensure these costs are charged to the Orphan Well Program.
These efforts appear to be producing results. Data obtained from the Division’s ArcGIS database show that of 241,242 known wells in Ohio, 83,568 have been plugged. As seen in Figure 1, 2,341 orphan wells are waiting to be plugged, while 26,912 wells are of unknown status.
Figure 1: Map of Ohio showing orphaned wells ready to be plugged, orphaned wells that have been plugged, and wells of an unknown status. Created using ArcGIS data given by the Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management (2025).
Legislative Context and Future Considerations
Ohio’s approach to oil and gas regulation has evolved through numerous legislative actions since 2012.
- House Bill 225 (2018) increased the severance tax allocation to the Orphan Well Program from 14% to 30% but also shifted the burden for plugging old wells from operators to the state and limited the Division’s lookback period for identifying original well owners to 40 years.
- House Bill 430 (2022) clarified that expenditures for locating, analyzing, stabilizing, and designing plugging plans could count toward the 30% spending.
- Most recently, House Bill 96, the state budget bill (2025), decreased the severance tax allocation to the Oil and Gas Well Fund from 90% to 86%, resulting in a $2 million annual loss to the Orphan Well Program, with funds redirected to the Geological Mapping Fund for exploration of new drilling sites.
This legislative trajectory reflects ongoing tension between supporting oil and gas development and addressing the environmental legacy of over 160 years of extraction.
Recommendations
Several areas warrant further attention as Ohio addresses its orphan well problem.
First, the state should complete a comprehensive inventory of undocumented orphan wells using technologies such as aerial surveys and machine learning analysis of historical records.
Second, researchers should continue developing methods to identify high-emitting wells for priority plugging, since only about 10% of orphan wells account for the bulk of methane emissions.
Third, policymakers should consider taxing horizontal wells to benefit the Orphan Well Program. At the time of writing this report, there is no severance tax on horizontal wells despite the uptick in hydraulic fracturing within the state.
Fourth, the state should re-evaluate the budget allocated for the Orphan Well program, as much work still needs to be done.
With that, continued monitoring of the Orphan Well Program’s compliance with statutory requirements will be essential to ensure that momentum gained in recent years is maintained.
Ella George was an intern with Save Ohio Parks in Summer and Fall 2025. She is a student at Kent State University.