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Illinois

Plugging and Restoration Fund (PRF)

Agency Illinois Department of Natural Resources

The Plugging and Restoration Fund (PRF) is how the Office of Oil and Gas Resource Management of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) plugs oil and gas wells that were abandoned or that leak. IDNR says the program, set up by law, dates from 1991, and that fees and the bonds operators forfeit pay for it. Beside it the office runs a Landowner Grant Program for abandoned wells on private land, and federal grants under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) have added money for plugging.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 does not name orphan or abandoned well lists among its standard record sources. The general reading of a well at or near a property is on Oil or gas well on or near the subject property.

  • A well enters the Fund on a finding. IDNR plugs a well through the PRF only after the office finds either that the well is an emergency or that it meets the definition of an orphan well or an abandoned well. The programs page puts the wells covered at more than 3,991, and the facts page gives the same number, 3,991, for the Fund's production and injection wells. The federal projects page speaks of more than 4,000 known abandoned and orphaned wells across the state.
  • Plugging seals the hole. IDNR explains plugging as filling a well with cement, which stops fluids from entering or leaving it.
  • The list loads by script. IDNR says it updates the PRF Well List monthly, and the page was marked last updated October 2026 when read. Its columns cover the county and the well's location, the permit number and issue date, the well's name, type and status, the operator and its number, a reference number and the fund. This handbook did not read the rows. Ask the office what a listed well's status means.
  • A landowner can be repaid for plugging. Under the Landowner Grant Program, IDNR repays the owner of the land for plugging a well, but only a well that IDNR has declared abandoned by administrative order, and not where the landowner is also the well's permittee. The money is set each state fiscal year: applications go to the Springfield office after April 1, grants are made after July 1, the plugging must begin within 120 days of approval and end within 180, weather permitting, and IDNR pays once the work is done. Ask the owner whether a grant was sought or paid for a well on the property.
  • Federal money plugged more. IDNR received a $25 million initial IIJA grant, and may receive up to $36 million more through the formula grant, to plug abandoned and orphaned wells over five years. Its page on the initial grant says 517 well plugging projects were finished, and holds a table of every well plugged under that grant that will not be updated again; the table's column labels add the API number, the date plugged and the latitude and longitude. For a well on that table, ask IDNR what it holds on the plugging.

Where to look a site up

Getting the file

IDNR takes written requests under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act through its FOIA Online Submittal, by mail or special carrier to Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Attn: FOIA Officer, One Natural Resources Way, Springfield, IL 62702-1271, by email, or by fax to 217-785-2438. Its FOIA page says each program office answers for its own records, so name the Office of Oil and Gas Resource Management, and give the well's county, its section, township and range, and its permit number or the reference number from the PRF list.

Sources

Illinois Department of Natural Resources pages, read October 17, 2026:

Maintained by Barrow. General reference only, not legal or professional advice. Barrow is not affiliated with any government agency, and neither Barrow nor the information as presented here is endorsed by any state or government agency. See how Barrow drafts the report