Orphaned wells, and who is liable

An old well on your land is somebody’s problem. Kansas law is clearer than most people expect about whose — and about the one thing you can do that makes it yours.

The rule, and it runs against intuition

Under K.S.A. 55-179, a landowner is responsible for plugging a well on their property only if they have tampered with it or taken the duty on in writing. Otherwise the responsibility sits with the operator — in general the current or last operator of the well, decided case by case on the records.

But the natural thing to do with an ugly steel pipe is exactly the thing not to do. Knocking over casing, cutting it off at ground level, or burying a well can make you a responsible party. If you find an abandoned well, report it — there is an Abandoned Well Reporting Form for that, and reporting is the landowner’s part.

When nobody can be found, the State pays

The Legislature created the Abandoned Well Plugging and Site Remediation Fund in 1996. Where the Conservation Division can find no responsible party, it plugs the well itself, working through a priority list that weighs the well’s age, its construction, and its effect on the environment and on public safety.

12,297 wells on this register carry the class that records exactly that.

What each class means

Plugged and Abandoned — 245,220

the well was plugged and the work was reported. This is the status you want to see against a well nobody produces from any more.

Producing — 68,278

the well was producing when the record was last updated. It says nothing about today’s rate.

KCC Fee Fund Plugging — 12,297

the well was plugged at the State’s expense, through the Abandoned Well Plugging and Site Remediation Fund, because no responsible party could be found. It is the clearest sign in this file that an operator walked away.

Inactive Well — 14,915

on the register, not producing, and not plugged. This is the category a landowner should look at hardest.

Approved Intent to Drill — 36,535

a notice of intent the Commission approved. It does not mean a well was ever drilled.

Expired Intent to Drill (C-1) — 18,534

an intent that lapsed. No well followed.

Authorized Injection Well — 15,591

authorised to receive fluid — saltwater disposal or enhanced recovery — not to produce it.

Recompleted — 13,507

the well was re-entered and completed in another formation.

Converted to EOR Well — 9,497

converted to enhanced oil recovery service.

⚠️ Two fields disagree, and we show both

247,875 wells are classed as plugged and abandoned. Only 178,355 wells anywhere on the register carry a plugging date, and 92,867 of those classed as plugged have none. Meanwhile 26,002 wells carry a date under a different class.

We do not resolve that for you. The class is what the register asserts and it is what the pages count; the date is shown where it exists. Anyone building on this data should carry the same distinction — treating a missing date as evidence a well was never plugged would be wrong on 92,867 wells.

⚠️ What this register is not

This register records what was reported about a well, not its condition today. A well shown as producing may have stopped; a well shown as inactive may have been dealt with. Nothing here is an inspection. It does not measure contamination, it does not say whether a plug is holding, and it is not a title search. A well classed as producing in 1987 may have been dry for thirty years.

An old well on land you own or are buying?

This site says what the register records. Whether a particular well needs attention, who the last operator was, and what it costs to deal with, takes someone who works Kansas oil and gas. Tell us where and we pass the request on.

We recommend nobody and we are nobody's agent. We have no arrangement with any firm today — we are collecting these requests in order to go and find them. What we do with this.

Not a consumer reporting agency. This site and the datasets sold from it are not consumer reports under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and must not be used to decide anyone's eligibility for employment, credit, insurance, housing, or any other purpose covered by the FCRA. If you need a background check, use a screening company that operates as a consumer reporting agency.