All Posts by Date

311 posts found, showing 20 per page

Surface Owners’ News – Winter 2024-2025
Newsletter WVSORO March 26, 2025
In this issue: Video Tour of Gas Wells in Kanawha State Forest; The WV Legislature: Looking Back on 2024, Ahead to 2025; Plugging the Leaks: West Virginia's Orphaned Well Crisis; Watching Out for Field Tap Customers When Gas Pipelines Get Abandoned; Good News (Kind, Sort of) on a Key Diversified Lawsuit; EPA Approves WV for Carbon Sequestration Despite Risks; Support Our Work More
Issues: Abandoned wells, EPA, Legislation, Orphaned wells

Tell the Legislature: Pass the Orphaned Well Prevention Act!
Updates and Alerts WVSORO March 24, 2025
Irresponsible oil and gas well drillers have 12,000 idle wells that should already be plugged. We need to stop more wells from being orphaned. We need the Orphaned Well Prevention Act! More
Issues: Oil and Gas, Orphaned wells

GOOD NEWS, KINDA, ON THE DIVERSIFIED LAW SUIT TO GET IT (AND EQT) TO PLUG MORE WELLS.
News WVSORO January 17, 2025
Diversified has been buying up wells from EQT and others -- wells that we know, based on calculations from its public disclosures, Diversified will not end up having the money to eventually plug. Diversified is milking the last gas and oil out of the declining wells and selling it to pay to itself and stockholders (and sponsor WVU sports) instead of using or banking the money to plug more of its wells. The "kinda" good news is that the law suit has settled. The bad news is that it is not all we had hoped for. If you have a Diversified well that is on your property what does this settlement mean for you? You may get a notice or see one in the paper which will give you the option to opt out of the class. Should you do so? More

WVSORO joins comments to EPA against West Virginia being given primacy for regulation of carbon sequestration injection wells because, in part, West Virginia’s has failed so miserably to regulate abandoned wells (and abandoned mine lands).
News WVSORO January 14, 2025
Some say enabling carbon sequestration of CO2 from power plants and other industries is bad because it just delays total renewable energy.  Some say it is necessary as a bridge.  WVSORO says, IF it is going to be done, and indeed if it CAN be done, it should be done right.  More
Issues: Injection wells

WVSORO comments on Hope Gas line abandonment and alternatives for field tap gas customers.
Tap Gas WVSORO January 7, 2025
[Updated February 25] This issue is not to be confused with “free gas”.  Free gas is what some surface homeowners get when there is a gas well on their property.  Field taps (often called "farm taps") are where rural surface owners with gathering or transmission lines across them are allowed to tap into the pipeline, set a meter, and pay for natural gas service.  More
Issues: Oil and Gas

Comment on Well Plugging Priorities; Remember to Vote
Updates and Alerts WVSORO November 1, 2024
The WV DEP will be taking comments on well plugging priorities as part of the Methane Emission Reduction Program. Details here on upcoming public meetings and how to weigh in. In the meantime, remember to vote and make your voice heard in the critical election season. More
Issues: Abandoned wells, Methane, Orphaned wells, Pollution

Should You Take Ownership of a Well to Keep Free Gas? If So, How?
Free Gas Advice WVSORO October 12, 2024
WVSORO does not recommend having ownership of an old gas well transferred to the surface owner in order to keep free gas for a home.  Owning a well means that when the well needs to be plugged, it is you who will be responsible if the State acts. More
Issues: Oil and Gas

WV SORO 2024 Legislative Summary; ALERT: Landmen Buying Pore Space Rights
Updates and Alerts WVSORO March 19, 2024
Below is a summary of WV SORO's actions on bills during the 2024 West Virginia Legislature's regular session, which ended March 9. During the session we also learned that there are land agents going door to door trying to get surface owners to sign away rights to the pore space in the rock formations under their land, and we need to educate surface owners about that. So this is intended to kill two birds with one stone. We will start with the alert since it is shorter. More
Issues: Leasing, Legislation, Pore space

Carbon dioxide storage hub seeks 80,000 acres across Western Pa., Ohio and West Virginia
News WVSORO March 8, 2024
Landmen are knocking on doors again in southwestern Pennsylvania,eastern Ohio and West Virginia. This time, it’s not to make deals for what’salready in the ground, but for the empty spaces that could hold the region’sindustrial waste — the carbon dioxide that comes out of smokestacks acrossthe tri-state region. More
Issues: Leasing, Oil and Gas

Should surface owners sign pore space lease etc. papers? If so, how much money should you get?
Advice WVSORO March 7, 2024
What should you do if someone knocks on your door and wants to lease the pore space in the formations under your surface land? More

Tell the House of Delegates: Don’t stop West Virginians from getting paid for offsetting carbon with their trees!
Updates and Alerts WVSORO March 5, 2024
SB 618 would do by establishing these unnecessary hurdles that will discourage companies from investing in carbon exchange programs in West Virginia. Contact your member of the House of Delegates. Tell them to vote “NO” on SB 618. More

Take Action to Protect Citizen Air Monitoring
Updates and Alerts WVSORO February 12, 2024
Please take action and tell your Senators to reject HB 5018. HB 5018 could prevent you from being able to use in court data you collect (like with a methane detector) from stationary sources of pollution (like a gas well etc.) on or next to or near your land. If courts are not supposed to legislate, then legislatures should not rule on evidence. More
Issues: Pollution

Panel discussion on pipelines.
Pipeline Advice WVSORO December 15, 2023
In 2014 WVSORO had a membership meeting that included a panel discussion on pipelines.  The two videos below will let you view that. More

Tour of gas wells & their problems in Kanawha State Forest
Blog WVSORO December 13, 2023
Here is a 29-minute video of a guided Tour of Gas Wells & Their Problems in Kanawha State Forest recorded in November of 2023.  The 9000-acre Kanawha State Forest is technically a state "forest", but after citizen complaints to the Legislature about logging there, it is now managed as a state park. More

Surface Owners’ News 2023 Print Edition Now Available
Updates and Alerts WVSORO November 30, 2023
The 2023 print edition of Surface Owners News is now available. We hope you enjoy reading the latest news and updates from the WV Surface Owners' Rights Organization. More
Issues: Abandoned wells, Land use, Orphaned wells, Pollution, Well pads

Surface Owners’ News – 2023 Annual Print Edition
Newsletter Julie Archer November 30, 2023
In this issue: Surface Owners Can Sue Drillers to Plug Non-Producing Wells; Advocacy on Federal Regulations including the Third Payout of Federal Methane Reduction Funds, EPA's Methane Rule, and Federal Leasing; 2023 Legislative Update; Kanawha State Forest Gas Well Tour with WV Legislators and Staff; Farmland Preservation Now An Option for Surface-Only Owners; Citizen Air Monitoring Project; 2024 Legislative Priorities More
Issues: Abandoned wells, DEP, EPA, Horizontal wells, Land use, Orphaned wells

Farmland preservation is now OK for surface only owners.
Advice WVSORO November 15, 2023
Many surface owners have owned their farmland for generations and want it to remain farmland for future generations.  Another scenario is that sometimes landowners who more recently acquired their surface farmland want to see their land saved from development as suburbs or from industrial development.  More

What is a “Division Order”? 
Leasing / Amendment Advice WVSORO November 15, 2023
Do I have to sign it to get my royalties after the well is drilled? More
Issues: Minerals-Royalties

WVSORO comments to Bureau of Land Management on new federal lands oil and gas leasing bonding rule that will guarantee future orphaned wells.
Blog WVSORO October 31, 2023
WVSORO can find no examples of where bonding paid the full cost of plugging when a well owner goes out of business.  Instead the driller should stat setting aside money when the well first goes not line (when there is money).  And blanket/statewide bonding is sure to fail. More