The Texas Railroad Commission reported that it assessed and cleaned up more than 400 abandoned oil field sites during fiscal 2019, more than double the 188 sites the Texas legislature set for the period. It also completed more than 133,000 oil and gas inspections, exceeding state lawmakers’ performance goal of 130,000 inspections for the 12 months ending Sept. 30. The agency’s oil and gas division also hired a record 170 inspectors statewide.
“The commission set a very aggressive goal to assess and clean up more sites in FY19,” said TRC Executive Director Wei Wang. “Our staff worked very hard to achieve this milestone. State-Managed Cleanup is one of many programs that support our agency’s priority of protecting public safety and the environment.”
Wang noted that additional highlights for the agency’s site remediation section included increasing the number of cleanups to 415 in fiscal 2019 from 228 in fiscal 2018 and identifying 2,316 potential sites as candidates for the State Managed Cleanup Fund in fiscal 2019 compared to 2,159 candidates in the previous 12-month period.
The commission noted that since it established its state-managed cleanup program in 1992, it has assessed, investigated, and—if cleanups were deemed necessary—completed them at 6,821 abandoned oil field sites across Texas, restoring land used to produce energy back to a safe condition.
The agency also reported that its oil and gas division completed 133,187 inspections in fiscal 2019, up from 130,064 in fiscal 2018; increased the number of inspectors to 172 from 168 year-to-year and reduced the inventory of wells not inspected in the last 5 years to 13% in fiscal 2019 from 32% in fiscal 2018.
Inspection categories
The main categories of inspections performed include responding to incidents and complaints; conducting routine well inspections; and witnessing critical well operations including setting surface casing to protect groundwater, mechanical integrity tests, and pluggings, it pointed out.
“As these numbers demonstrate, our field staff is committed to strong monitoring over the state’s oil and gas operators so Texans can have confidence that their energy is produced safely,” said Danny Sorrells, who directs TRC’s oil and gas division. “As the increased energy activity continues in Texas, I am proud of the hard work by our inspectors and supporting staff in our nine district offices statewide.”
During fiscal 2019, TRC also launched RRC OIL (Online Inspection Lookup), allowing the public and oil and gas operators to look up inspection and violation data recorded during inspections of leases, wells, facilities, and other sites. The online query tool can be found at the agency’s web site, rrc.state.tx.us, at the Resource Center link under the About Us category.
