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Pennsylvania lists 33,000 abandoned wells; one county has 6,500

Published 2026-11-07 · By Pushbuild · Data: Oil & Gas Wells API: US, Canada, UK, Norway, Brazil, Australia

33,000Pennsylvania lists · as of 2026-11-07

Pennsylvania's well inventory lists 33,431 wells as abandoned or orphaned, the most of any state we cover. Venango County alone has 6,516. Oklahoma lists 23,144 as orphaned or awaiting state-funded plugging; West Virginia lists 17,561 as abandoned.

AKMEVTNHWAIDMontana: 499MTNorth Dakota: 814NDMNILWIMINYRIMAORNVWYSDIAINOhio: 2,616OHPennsylvania: 33,431PANJCTCAUTCONEMOKentucky: 10,335KYWest Virginia: 17,561WVVAMDDEAZNew Mexico: 451NMKansas: 12,302KSArkansas: 267ARTNNCSCDCOklahoma: 23,144OKLAMSALGAHITXFLWells: lowhigh · outline: no data
Hover or tap a state for its value. Same numbers as the table below.

Orphaned and abandoned wells by state

StateWellsStatuses counted
PA33,431Abandoned 6,337; DEP Abandoned List 20,720; DEP Orphan List 6,374
OK23,144Orphan 17,997; State_Funds_Plugging 5,147
WV17,561Abandoned Well 17,561
KS12,302KCC Fee Fund Plugging 12,302
KY10,335Abandoned 10,335
OH2,616Orphan Well - Pending 548; Orphan Well - Ready 2,068
ND814Abandoned 814
MT499Abandoned 266; Abandoned - Unapproved 233
NM451Reclamation Fund Approved 448; Reclamation Fund Pending 3
AR267Abandoned/Orphaned Well 267

Counties with the most

CountyStateWells
VenangoPA6,516
McKeanPA5,855
WarrenPA4,968
WashingtonOK3,341
ButlerPA2,793
OkmulgeeOK2,459
NowataOK2,374
ElkPA2,025
CreekOK1,738
RitchieWV1,720
ForestPA1,613
RogersOK1,464
RoaneWV1,369
WashingtonPA1,193
JeffersonPA1,024

Who is on the record

The operator field holds the last operator the regulator recorded. On PA's lists the most common entry is the DEP's own oil and gas office (9,323 wells). Diversified Production appears on 4,956 abandoned or orphaned records in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Many records have no operator at all: 55% in Kansas, 39% in Oklahoma, 27% in West Virginia, 23% in Pennsylvania.

Operator of recordWellsStates
PA DEP OFC OIL & GAS MGMT9,323PA
DIVERSIFIED PROD LLC3,019PA
HISTORIC OWNER2,088OH
DIVERSIFIED PRODUCTION LLC1,937WV
ARG RESOURCES INC1,488PA
NORTH AMER OIL & GAS DRILLING CO INC1,047PA
KCC FEE FUND PLUG983KS
WV MINERAL GROUP LLC905WV
STATE OF KANSAS861KS
PENNZOIL PROD CO723PA
ROSS AND WHARTON GAS COMPANY, INC.682WV
GROUND RESOURCES, LLC681WV
RETURN OIL CORP649PA
STATE FUND PLUGGING513OK
PEOPLES GAS CO LLC376PA

Caveats

States define these statuses differently. "Abandoned" in West Virginia and Kentucky is the regulator's status word and does not by itself mean no one is responsible. Texas publishes no operator or status beyond "plugged", and California has no orphan status in its data, so neither appears.

Sources

Data as of 2026-11-07. Every figure in this post is in the table above and the CSV below.

Download the data behind this post: liquor-wells-wells-by-status-class.csv · liquor-wells-orphan-wells-top-counties.csv · liquor-wells-orphan-wells-last-operator.csv

Get this data

Every number in this post comes from the Oil & Gas Wells API: US, Canada, UK, Norway, Brazil, Australia. $0.0008 per row returned; every key gets $1 of free usage each month.

curl -X POST https://api.pushbuild.com/oil-gas-wells/run \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"maxItems": 20}'
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Header photo: Declan M. Martin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

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