Plug Those Holes!
Note: This article was originally published in the Shepherdstown Chronicle on November 7, 2025 under the title Plug those holes.
West Virginia is a major producer of natural gas, and produces some oil as well.
A byproduct of this industry is several thousand abandoned wells that have not been closed (“plugged” is the term of art).
A couple of weeks ago Governor Patrick Morrisey announced a deal with Diversified Energy, the owner of the largest number of abandoned wells in our state. Diversified agreed to plug, at its own expense, 75 wells per year for the next 20 years. That means that 20 years from now only about three-quarters of Diversified’s approximately 2,000 abandoned wells will have been plugged.
Since Diversified is required (technically) by law to plug wells it abandons anyway, this deal is an insult to West Virginians. It’s a particular insult to owners of land that has been drilled upon and left with holes in the ground.
Throughout much of West Virginia, “landowners” own only the surface of the land. Mineral rights are owned by large out-of-state companies who bought them long ago through a legal mechanism called a “broadform” deed. The mineral owners are permitted by law to disturb the surface to get to the minerals without the surface owners’ permission.
Now consider that there are a total of about 12,000 abandoned wells in West Virginia, counting Diversified’s. Need I say this is a major problem?
The Legislature has wrestled with this problem for many years. I’ve always thought that the companies should be held financially responsible for plugging their wells when those wells have stopped producing. But the companies resist (of course) and they have extraordinary political power.
The companies are required to post a bond for each well they drill. But any bond money forfeited goes by law to plug “orphan” wells. These are wells that were left unplugged by companies that went out of business, due to bankruptcy or whatever.
Furthermore, Diversified alone owns about 20,000 wells that are currently producing natural gas and/or oil. What happens when those wells stop producing?
For much of the twentieth century the coal industry owned West Virginia’s politics, and was able to get sweetheart deals similar to the one Governor Morrisey wants to give Diversified. But at least the coal industry was, during that time, providing many decent paying jobs to West Virginians. In the middle of the last century there were over 100,000 active miners in our state. (Now, there are fewer than 20,000 active mining jobs, which is part of the reason that West Virginia is the only state with fewer people than in 1950.)
But the oil/gas industry has never provided, and will never provide, large numbers of jobs. In this, it is similar to the data center industry and the commercial solar field industry.
Morrisey isn’t the first governor to pursue industries that provide few jobs, but he’s the one doing it now. When it comes to economic development, we can do better. There are many industries that fit with our rural character and that provide significant numbers of jobs. We should pursue them.
