Oilfield Site Restoration (OSR) Program

The Oilfield Site Restoration (OSR) Program of the Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy (C&E) plugs and abandons orphaned oil and gas wells and restores their sites to approximate pre-wellsite conditions suitable for redevelopment. C&E dates it to 1993, within the department then called the Department of Natural Resources. Orphaned sites, in C&E's definition, are wells or production facilities with no viable responsible party to be found, or whose party has not maintained them as state regulations require. The Natural Resources Trust Authority (NRTA) oversees the program under the secretary, and the State Mineral and Energy Board oversees it in turn through its NRTA Committee.

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. C&E says orphaned wells are found wherever oil and gas has been worked in the state, and that, neglected by the operator of record, the sites deteriorate and can release oil, gas and saltwater around them.

• Orphaned is a declared status. C&E says a site becomes officially orphaned after a notification procedure, when it is published in the State Register, on the 20th day of each month.
• Orphan status does not change ownership. C&E says the state does not take ownership of an orphaned well or site, that orphan status neither relieves liability nor changes ownership, and that the operator of record stays the responsible party by statute. A landowner is not responsible for restoring an orphaned site on its land unless it is also a responsible party as LSA R.S. 30:82(9) defines one: the operator of record that last operated the property when the site was about to be abandoned, stopped operating or became unusable, together with that operator's partners and working interest owners.
• Earlier operators can share the bill. When the Fund pays to restore a site without a site specific trust account, C&E says the secretary is authorized to recover those costs only from the last operator of record and its working interest owners, unless they pass $250,000; above that, every former operator and working interest owner becomes liable for the whole cost, in inverse chronological order. C&E says the recovery process is set out in LSA-R.S. 30:93. That law exempts a former party above $250,000 only if it meets every one of the conditions it lists, among them full and timely contributions to the Oilfield Site Restoration Fund and a site specific trust account kept in compliance, and it lets the secretary agree on a party's contribution before restoration, after which, once that party has paid, the secretary can recover nothing more from it. For cost recovery, all of one operator's wells and facilities in a field count as one site.
• A trust account can move liability at a transfer. When an ownership interest in an oilfield site is transferred, either party may apply to set up a site specific trust account (SSTA) for future restoration costs, on C&E's Form 9604. C&E says a fully funded account releases the transferor and all prior responsible parties from site restoration costs, to the extent the law allows, and makes the transferee the responsible party for restoration. Ask whether an SSTA exists for a well on the property.
• An owner can restore a site without becoming its operator. Under a Cooperative Agreement with C&E, a landowner or developer may restore an orphaned wellsite at its own expense without becoming the operator of record. The program does not repay the cost and must be indemnified against claims arising from the work, and well work still needs a work permit from the District Office or the Injection Division.
• The count has grown. C&E's federal projects page says Louisiana had more than 4,600 orphaned wells when the federal program was first announced; its news release of August 28, 2026 puts the number at about 6,400, more than 4,200 of them in North Louisiana. The program's FAQ gives an average of 125 sites restored a year since it began; the federal projects page says that, on state money alone, it had recently dealt with between 120 and 200 or more orphaned wells a year.
• Fees and federal grants pay for it. C&E says fees that Louisiana oil and gas operators pay on production and on inactive wells fund the program, with no general fund money: roughly $15 million a year on the program page, and $12 million to $15 million in the August 28, 2026 release. Federal money under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is separate. C&E's application for a $25 million initial grant is marked approved, and on August 28, 2026 it announced its choice of two contractors to plug and clean up orphaned well sites, mainly in the Monroe and Shreveport districts, with at least $30 million in federal grant funding; the release expected the work to take three to five years, depending on weather and the availability of equipment and crews.

Where to look a site up

• The Oilfield Site Restoration Program page links the Orphan Site List in SONRIS, which the program's FAQ calls the list of all orphaned wells in the state, and the Newly Orphaned Wells (State Register). This handbook opened neither.
• The IIJA Federal Projects page links spreadsheets of a preliminary project well list, of wells under review for federal funding, which it says is not final, and of wells plugged through the end of the most recent quarter. This handbook did not open them.
• The program's office is on the 9th floor of the LaSalle Building, 617 North Third Street, Baton Rouge, LA 70802, with mail to P.O. Box 94275, Baton Rouge, LA 70804.
• A well's own permit, completion and plugging papers are found as the Oil and gas well records page describes.

Getting the file

C&E's Contact Us page sends public records requests to the Legal Services Division, Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy, P.O. Box 94396, Baton Rouge, LA 70804-9396, or by email to DCE.PublicRecords@LA.GOV. For an orphaned well, ask for the record of its orphan declaration, any cooperative agreement or site specific trust account, and the program's restoration records. The page gives no reply time or fee.

Sources

Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy pages, read October 17, 2026, no modified date shown:

• Oilfield Site Restoration Program
• Oilfield Site Restoration Program FAQs
• IIJA Federal Projects
• C&E Selects Contractors for Federal Orphaned Well Funding, dated August 28, 2026.
• Contact Us

Louisiana State Legislature page, read October 17, 2026:

• RS 30:93, last amended by Acts 2025, No. 458.