Oil and Gas Bonds: Bonding Requirements and BLM Expenditures to Reclaim Orphaned Wells

Thumbnail image of item number 1 in: 'Oil and Gas Bonds: Bonding Requirements and BLM Expenditures to Reclaim Orphaned Wells'.
Thumbnail image of item number 2 in: 'Oil and Gas Bonds: Bonding Requirements and BLM Expenditures to Reclaim Orphaned Wells'.
Thumbnail image of item number 3 in: 'Oil and Gas Bonds: Bonding Requirements and BLM Expenditures to Reclaim Orphaned Wells'.
Thumbnail image of item number 4 in: 'Oil and Gas Bonds: Bonding Requirements and BLM Expenditures to Reclaim Orphaned Wells'.
Showing 1-4 of 58 pages in this report.

PDF Version Also Available for Download.

Description

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 directs the Department of the Interior (Interior) to manage lands for multiple uses while also taking any action to prevent "unnecessary or undue degradation" of the land. To do this, Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM), among other things, requires oil and gas operators to reclaim the land they disturb and post a bond to help ensure they do so. Despite these requirements, not all operators perform reclamation. If the bond is not sufficient to cover well … continued below

Creation Information

United States. Government Accountability Office. January 27, 2010.

Context

This report is part of the collection entitled: Government Accountability Office Reports and was provided by the UNT Libraries Government Documents Department to the UNT Digital Library, a digital repository hosted by the UNT Libraries. It has been viewed 110 times. More information about this report can be viewed below.

Who

People and organizations associated with either the creation of this report or its content.

Author

Publisher

Provided By

UNT Libraries Government Documents Department

Serving as both a federal and a state depository library, the UNT Libraries Government Documents Department maintains millions of items in a variety of formats. The department is a member of the FDLP Content Partnerships Program and an Affiliated Archive of the National Archives.

About | Browse this Partner

Contact Us

Corrections Questions

What

Descriptive information to help identify this report. Follow the links below to find similar items on the Digital Library.

Description

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 directs the Department of the Interior (Interior) to manage lands for multiple uses while also taking any action to prevent "unnecessary or undue degradation" of the land. To do this, Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM), among other things, requires oil and gas operators to reclaim the land they disturb and post a bond to help ensure they do so. Despite these requirements, not all operators perform reclamation. If the bond is not sufficient to cover well plugging and surface reclamation and there are no responsible or liable parties, the well is considered "orphaned," and BLM uses federal dollars to fund reclamation. The 12 western states where most oil and gas production occurs and other Interior agencies also require bonds to ensure reclamation. GAO was asked to (1) determine the number, value, and coverage of bonds held by BLM for oil and gas operations; (2) determine the amount that BLM has paid to reclaim orphaned wells over the past 20 years and the number of orphaned wells BLM has identified but has not yet reclaimed; and (3) compare BLM's bonding requirements for oil and gas operations with those the 12 western states use for oil and gas operations on state and private lands and other Interior agencies' bonding requirements for other resources. Among other things, GAO analyzed BLM data on wells and BLM-held bonds, and interviewed BLM officials."

Language

Item Type

Identifier

Unique identifying numbers for this report in the Digital Library or other systems.

Collections

This report is part of the following collection of related materials.

Government Accountability Office Reports

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for the U.S. Congress investigating how the federal government spends taxpayers' money. Its goal is to increase accountability and improve the performance of the federal government. The Government Accountability Office Reports Collection consists of over 13,000 documents on a variety of topics ranging from fiscal issues to international affairs.

About | Browse this Collection

What responsibilities do I have when using this report?

Digital Files

When

Dates and time periods associated with this report.

Creation Date

  • January 27, 2010

Added to The UNT Digital Library

  • June 12, 2014, 7:50 p.m.

Usage Statistics

When was this report last used?

Yesterday: 0
Past 30 days: 1
Total Uses: 110
More Statistics

Where

Geographical information about where this report originated or about its content.

Place Name

Publication Place

Map Information

  • map marker Place Name coordinates. (May be approximate.)
  • Repositioning map may be required for optimal printing.

Mapped Locations

Interact With This Report

Here are some suggestions for what to do next.

Top Search Results

We found 47 places within this report that matched your search. View Now

Start Reading

Thumbnail image of item number 1 in: 'Oil and Gas Bonds: Bonding Requirements and BLM Expenditures to Reclaim Orphaned Wells'.
Thumbnail image of item number 2 in: 'Oil and Gas Bonds: Bonding Requirements and BLM Expenditures to Reclaim Orphaned Wells'.
Thumbnail image of item number 3 in: 'Oil and Gas Bonds: Bonding Requirements and BLM Expenditures to Reclaim Orphaned Wells'.
Thumbnail image of item number 4 in: 'Oil and Gas Bonds: Bonding Requirements and BLM Expenditures to Reclaim Orphaned Wells'.

PDF Version Also Available for Download.

Citations, Rights, Re-Use

International Image Interoperability Framework

IIF Logo

We support the IIIF Presentation API

Links for Robots

Helpful links in machine-readable formats.

Archival Resource Key (ARK)

International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF)

Metadata Formats

Images

URLs

Stats

United States. Government Accountability Office. Oil and Gas Bonds: Bonding Requirements and BLM Expenditures to Reclaim Orphaned Wells, report, January 27, 2010; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc297492/: accessed June 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.

Back to Top of Screen