HARRISBURG — McKean County is due to receive $1.24 million from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to plug marginal conventional wells (MCWs) through its Methane Emissions Reduction Program (MERP).

Sixty-two wells in McKean County are included in 35 projects across the commonwealth set to receive $7.24 million to plug 329 wells, roughly $22,000 per well.

To be classified as marginal, conventional oil or gas wells must produce less than 15 barrels of oil or 90,000 cubic feet of gas — or a combination thereof — per day.

According to DEP spokesperson Tom Decker, there are an estimated 12,109 MCWs within McKean County, 2,881 in Elk, 1,185 in Potter and 16,225 in Warren. Pennsylvania is home to an estimated 104,588 MCWs and, Decker said, “most conventional wells in Pennsylvania meet that definition.”

Also due to receive funding are Potter, Warren and Elk counties. Potter County will receive $780,000 to plug 39 wells and Warren County $1.1 million to plug 52 wells. Elk is one of five counties, in addition to Armstrong, Clarion, Clearfield and Jefferson, set to receive $340,000 to plug 17 wells.

The federal Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provided new opportunities and funding to reduce methane emissions from the petroleum and natural gas sector and DEP created the MERP Grant to provide funding to applicants to plug eligible MCWs.​

Wells that are not leaking a detectable level of methane are also included in the program since a well that is not currently leaking methane will eventually leak as materials break down over time. Non-leaking marginal conventional wells that are plugged today prevent future methane emissions.

“Methane is an extremely prevalent greenhouse gas, driving climate change and threatening the public health of our communities,” said DEP Secretary Jessica Shirley. “By reducing methane emissions from unproductive wells, we are both lowering the state’s contribution to the gases causing devastating climate impacts globally and preventing potentially dangerous gas leakages and backflow pollution of watersheds and groundwaters in and around communities across the commonwealth.”

To be eligible, applying operators must be in compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements, including those related to the submission of well production, waste and mechanical integrity assessment reports to DEP, and provide identification of whether methane emissions were detected at each eligible well. If screenings indicated that methane was detected, grant recipients are required to measure pre-plugging and post-plugging emissions.

Through MERP:

• DEP provides funding up to $420,000 for any single applicant within each application period;
• $20,000 for each eligible well plugged that is a marginal conventional well of a depth of 3,000 feet or less or the actual cost of the qualified well plugger to plug the well, whichever is less;
• $35,000 for each eligible well plugged that is a marginal conventional well of a depth greater than 3,000 feet or the actual cost of the qualified well plugger to plug the well, whichever is less;
• Or to an eligible applicant who plugs all eligible wells approved to plug as part of the application submitted to the department, may plug additional eligible wells with prior department approval up to the maximum grant approved as part of the application.

For more information, visit the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s website.