Ogcc

Forty troubled wells that changed hands last year in a bankruptcy sale in western Colorado have been ordered closed as a threat to public health by the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (OGCC).

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead on Tuesday unveiled a four-year plan to accelerate the plugging of more than 1,200 abandoned oil and natural gas wells on state and fee lands. The proposal will be given Thursday to the state legislature’s Joint Minerals Committee, which requested a plan be presented at that meeting.

Wyoming and North Dakota are stepping up statewide assessments of ways to cut down on the volumes of associated natural gas flaring at oil wellhead sites, but the economics for oil/gas operators in some cases are complicating the efforts.

The Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (OGCC) has assessed $1,000 fines against two producers, units of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Samson Resources Co., for flaring prohibited amounts of associated natural gas at the wellhead beyond an agreed-to deadline.