# 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](https://pushbuild.com/apis/oil-gas-wells.html)

**33,000**Pennsylvania 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.

Hover or tap a state for its value. Same numbers as the table below.

## Orphaned and abandoned wells by state

| State | Wells | Statuses counted |
| --- | --- | --- |
| PA | 33,431 | Abandoned 6,337; DEP Abandoned List 20,720; DEP Orphan List 6,374 |
| OK | 23,144 | Orphan 17,997; State_Funds_Plugging 5,147 |
| WV | 17,561 | Abandoned Well 17,561 |
| KS | 12,302 | KCC Fee Fund Plugging 12,302 |
| KY | 10,335 | Abandoned 10,335 |
| OH | 2,616 | Orphan Well - Pending 548; Orphan Well - Ready 2,068 |
| ND | 814 | Abandoned 814 |
| MT | 499 | Abandoned 266; Abandoned - Unapproved 233 |
| NM | 451 | Reclamation Fund Approved 448; Reclamation Fund Pending 3 |
| AR | 267 | Abandoned/Orphaned Well 267 |

## Counties with the most

| County | State | Wells |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Venango | PA | 6,516 |
| McKean | PA | 5,855 |
| Warren | PA | 4,968 |
| Washington | OK | 3,341 |
| Butler | PA | 2,793 |
| Okmulgee | OK | 2,459 |
| Nowata | OK | 2,374 |
| Elk | PA | 2,025 |
| Creek | OK | 1,738 |
| Ritchie | WV | 1,720 |
| Forest | PA | 1,613 |
| Rogers | OK | 1,464 |
| Roane | WV | 1,369 |
| Washington | PA | 1,193 |
| Jefferson | PA | 1,024 |

## 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 record | Wells | States |
| --- | --- | --- |
| PA DEP OFC OIL & GAS MGMT | 9,323 | PA |
| DIVERSIFIED PROD LLC | 3,019 | PA |
| HISTORIC OWNER | 2,088 | OH |
| DIVERSIFIED PRODUCTION LLC | 1,937 | WV |
| ARG RESOURCES INC | 1,488 | PA |
| NORTH AMER OIL & GAS DRILLING CO INC | 1,047 | PA |
| KCC FEE FUND PLUG | 983 | KS |
| WV MINERAL GROUP LLC | 905 | WV |
| STATE OF KANSAS | 861 | KS |
| PENNZOIL PROD CO | 723 | PA |
| ROSS AND WHARTON GAS COMPANY, INC. | 682 | WV |
| GROUND RESOURCES, LLC | 681 | WV |
| RETURN OIL CORP | 649 | PA |
| STATE FUND PLUGGING | 513 | OK |
| PEOPLES GAS CO LLC | 376 | PA |

## 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

- [Railroad Commission of Texas](https://www.rrc.texas.gov/), read through the Pushbuild [Oil & Gas Wells API](https://pushbuild.com/apis/oil-gas-wells.html) on 2026-11-07

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](https://pushbuild.com/apis/analysis/data/liquor-wells-wells-by-status-class.csv) · [liquor-wells-orphan-wells-top-counties.csv](https://pushbuild.com/apis/analysis/data/liquor-wells-orphan-wells-top-counties.csv) · [liquor-wells-orphan-wells-last-operator.csv](https://pushbuild.com/apis/analysis/data/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](https://pushbuild.com/apis/oil-gas-wells.html). $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}'
```

[API docs and key](https://pushbuild.com/apis/oil-gas-wells.html)[More analysis from this data](https://pushbuild.com/apis/analysis/api/oil-gas-wells/)Embed this chart

Free to reuse with the credit link. Paste this HTML into your page, or use the [SVG file](https://pushbuild.com/apis/analysis/abandoned-orphaned-oil-gas-wells-by-state/chart.svg).

Want a table like this in Google Sheets, refreshed on demand? Free script: [copy a web table into Google Sheets](https://pushbuild.com/free/scripts/website-table-to-sheets/).

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Header photo: [Declan M. Martin](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sunniland_Oil_Field_preserved_pumpjack.jpg), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

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As of 2026-11-07. Source: https://pushbuild.com/apis/analysis/abandoned-orphaned-oil-gas-wells-by-state/