The Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) is once again spinning an error by a major Marcellus driller, Range Resources, as some sort of evil plot to avoid and defraud the DEP. Due to a mistake by a former employee, Range misclassified 42 old conventional wells on acreage it owns and did not plug the wells in a timely (for DEP) fashion. The DEP has just clipped the company $294,000 for the mistake. Range filed paperwork with the DEP back in 2017 for a well in Fayette County, asking the well to be labeled "inactive" with the intent of reactivating it. Apparently, that request was in error and the mistake caused the DEP to file a subpoena to get more records from Range. The DEP discovered there were 42 conventional wells in several counties, all of them abandoned and should have been plugged, but weren't. The DEP spins this like Range was intentionally hiding the information and gaming the system. Range says it was an honest paperwork error on the part of a former employee. Expensive error. Here's the DEP's side of the story: The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) executed a consent assessment of civil penalty (CACP) with Range Resources - Appalachia, LLC (Range Resources), an oil and gas operator that owns conventional wells, on Thursday, January 7, 2021, in the amount of $294,000 for violations of the 2012 Oil and Gas Act (Oil and Gas Act) regarding wells ineligible for inactive status listed on its inactive status request to DEP. DEP received Range Resources’ CACP payment on Friday, January 8, 2021. “It’s the law: inactive wells need to be viable for future use. If wells are not viable for future use, then they should be classified as abandoned wells and are required to be plugged,” said DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell. “DEP is committed to ensuring the safety and health of all Pennsylvanians and will continue to enforce violations of the commonwealth’s environmental protection laws.” The Oil and Gas Act mandates that wells must satisfy several criteria to be granted inactive status, including being viable for future use within five years. If wells are not viable for future use then they are ineligible for inactive status, and after 12 consecutive months of no production, the well would be classified as abandoned and must be plugged. Range Resources applied for inactive status on Friday, September 29, 2017, for its Shirocky No. 1 (Shirocky) well, located in Fayette County, indicating that it intended to return the well to production at a future date. However, Range Resources concurrently included its interoffice communication with its inactive status well application that stated its Shirocky well had no viable future use despite conflicting information in its inactive status application. Therefore, the Shirocky well was ineligible for inactive well status because it had no viable future use and should have never been listed on the request. It should have been classified as abandoned and subsequently plugged. Unplugged abandoned wells can be an extreme hazard to the health and safety of people and the environment. Leaking wells can contribute to air, water, and soil contamination. Pennsylvania’s oil and gas fields are riddled with about 200,000 to 560,000 abandoned wells representing a legacy of a century of largely unregulated oil and gas development. After receiving Range Resources’ interoffice communication that conflicted with its Shirocky inactive status application, DEP issued a subpoena to Range Resources for information related to other wells that Range Resources had requested inactive status. The information developed based on Range Resources’ response to the subpoena indicated that between Tuesday, July 16, 2013, and Monday, October 11, 2017, 42 of Range Resources’ conventional wells were placed on inactive status but were never used again. Some of the wells had not been in use for 12 months at the time Range Resources submitted its applications for inactive status. Range Resources used the inactive status period to delay the eventual plugging of unproductive wells without returning them to active status. A well granted inactive status is required to be plugged, or returned to active status, within five years of the date inactive status was granted. Operators can apply for an extension of inactive status. Range Resources should have classified the wells with no viable future use as abandoned and plugged them. Similar to the Shirocky well, these wells were ineligible for inactive status and should have never been included in the requests. DEP issued a notice of violation to Range Resources regarding the Shirocky well. Additional violations were addressed with the operator leading up to the CACP. Range Resources plugged its wells with no viable future use, which DEP confirmed. Following this action, DEP assessed Range Resources a civil penalty of $294,000. DEP received Range Resources’ CACP payment on Friday, January 8, 2021. The plugging and payment satisfied the conditions of the CACP. DEP deposited the money received from the CACP into an account for DEP’s Well Plugging Program and will use this money to plug orphan wells that have no responsible operator and that pose risks to public safety and the environment. “Assuring operators plug idle wells addresses liabilities now, instead of leaving them for future generations,” said McDonnell. (1) After discovering the error, Range plugged all of the offending wells. Pittsburgh Business Times ace reporter Paul Gough got Range's side of the story, the real facts of what actually happened: The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection fined Range Resources Corp. $294,000 over what the DEP said was incorrectly classifying a Fayette County well as inactive. The civil penalty came in a consent agreement between DEP and Range Resources (NYSE: RRC), one of the largest natural gas producers in southwestern Pennsylvania. The agreement covers one conventional natural gas well, Shirocky No. 1 in Fayette County, that Range had asked for inactive status but provided information that it both expected to have it become active at a later date and an internal memo that said it wouldn’t. DEP said that the well, if there was no plan to use it in the future, should have been plugged. Range said a former employee’s error was responsible for the miscommunication. A DEP subpoena to Range found 42 conventional wells — ones that aren’t drilled into the Marcellus or Utica Shale using current drilling methods — were designated inactive between 2013 and 2017 but production never was resumed. DEP said they should be considered not inactive but instead plugged. “It’s the law: inactive wells need to be viable for future use,” said DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell in a statement. “If wells are not viable for future use, then they should be classified as abandoned wells and are required to be plugged." Range either plugged the wells in question or returned them to production, with the exception of one that is scheduled to be plugged this year. Range has plugged 131 wells in Pennsylvania between 2013 and 2017. Range doesn’t have any conventional wells in its inventory anymore. In a statement, Range said that it’s worked for 25 years and has a strong track record in complying with DEP rules and plugging wells. “Range accepted responsibility for the error caused by a former employee and cooperated with the DEP to address its concerns,” Range said in a statement. “Range worked diligently to plug all the appropriate wells. We are pleased to resolve this matter and move ahead to redouble our commitment to responsible operations in Pennsylvania. Abandoned wells are a major issue in Pennsylvania, with an estimated 200,000-500,000 conventional wells that have been drilled in the past 150 years causing what officials say are a potential environmental hazard. The majority are so-called orphan wells, ones that have operators that have long since passed from the scene. “Assuring operators plug idle wells addresses liabilities now, instead of leaving them for future generations,” McDonn