2013 Kentucky Revised Statutes CHAPTER 353 - MINERAL CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT 353.180 Requirements for plugging abandoned well -- Bids -- Remedy for possessor of adjacent land or for department.
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353.180 Requirements for plugging abandoned well -- Bids -- Remedy for
possessor of adjacent land or for department.
(1)
(2)
(3)
No person shall abandon or remove casings from any oil or gas well, either dry
or producing, without first plugging the well in a secure manner approved by
the department and consistent with its administrative regulations. Upon the
department's plugging of an abandoned well in accordance with the
requirements of this subsection, the department may sell, by sealed bid, or
include as part of compensation in the contract for the plugging of the well, all
equipment removed from that well and deposit the proceeds of the sale into the
oil and gas well plugging fund, established in KRS 353.590(24).
Not less than thirty (30) days before advertising for bids for the plugging of
wells, the department shall publish, in a newspaper of general circulation, and
in locally published newspapers serving the areas in which the wells proposed
for plugging are located, notices of all wells on which there is salvageable
equipment, described as to farm name and Carter Coordinate location, for
which the department intends to seek bids for plugging. If a person other than
the operator claims an interest in the equipment of a well proposed for
plugging, he shall provide documentation of that interest to the department
within thirty (30) days of the date of publication of the notice of the
department's intent to plug a well. Prior to the department's advertising of bids
for the plugging of a well, the department shall release the well's equipment to
the person deemed to have an interest in that equipment and it shall be the
duty of the interest holder to remove the equipment before the well is plugged.
If documentation as to an asserted interest is not provided to the department in
the manner described in this subsection or a person deemed to be an interest
holder fails to remove the equipment before a well is plugged, the department
may sell or otherwise dispose of the equipment in accordance with this
subsection.
If a person fails to comply with subsection (1) of this section, any person
lawfully in possession of land adjacent to the well or the department may enter
on the land upon which the well is located and plug the well in the manner
provided in subsection (1) of this section, and may maintain a civil action
against the owner or person abandoning the well, jointly or severally, to recover
the cost of plugging the well. This subsection shall not apply to persons owning
the land on which the well is situated, and drilled by other persons.
Effective:July 12, 2006
History: Amended 2006 Ky. Acts ch. 160, sec. 1, effective July 12, 2006. -Amended 1996 Ky. Acts ch. 277, sec. 1, effective July 15, 1996. -- Amended
1992 Ky. Acts ch. 348, sec. 7, effective July 14, 1992 -- Recodified 1942 Ky.
Acts ch. 208, sec. 1, effective October 1, 1942, from Ky. Stat.
secs. 3914, 3914a.
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