Funds to plug abandoned oil wells headed to to New Mexico via Biden’s infrastructure bill

Funds to plug abandoned oil wells headed to to New Mexico via Biden’s infrastructure bill

A plan for how the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) will offer about $4 billion in grant funding to states for cleaning up abandoned oil and gas wells is due on Jan. 30, and New Mexico is hoping to get a share of those dollars.

Director of New Mexico’s Oil Conservation Division Adrienne Sandoval estimated during a Tuesday panel discussion there were about 1,700 abandoned or orphaned wells on state and private land in New Mexico.

Wells become orphaned when energy companies go bankrupt before wells are plugged or abandon the wells when they are no longer lucrative.

Adrian Hedden, Carlsbad Current Argus