Learn & Earn: Pennsylvania Apprentice Program

Pennsylvania and the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) have partnered on an apprenticeship program, training workers to decommission orphan and end of life oil and gas wells. UMWA expects this program will help address unemployment in Appalachia’s coal mining regions, providing wages and training for long-term economic stability. As companies and consumers transition to “cleaner” energies and technologies, the Appalachian region has suffered from a lack of accessible living-wage jobs.

According to Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Acting Secretary Jessica Shirley, Pennsylvania has over 350,000 orphaned and abandoned wells, which account for 8% of state methane emissions. In 2022-2023, approximately 224 of these wells were contracted for plugging with $25M in federal grant funding. DEP has identified ~27,000 orphaned wells and is prioritizing them for plugging, based on risk to the environment and local communities.

A UMWA Career Center now offers the Gas Well Capping Technician program to provide training to plug abandoned wells. This “earn while you learn” work model will help the state eliminate the potential health, safety, and environmental concerns of abandoned and orphaned wells through emissions mitigation. The apprenticeship program, offered through the Greene County Ruff Creek Training Center, will be an economic boost for workers in rural Appalachian communities while also addressing the nationwide shortage of skilled industry workers.

The Gas Well Capping Technician program is officially registered with the Apprenticeship and Training Office (ATO) through the Department of Labor & Industry (L&I). Workers will be trained on safety, well capping techniques, cement properties and uses, and land remediation. L&I has supported 53 registered apprenticeship programs in Pennsylvania, with over 15,000 registered apprentices.

Pennsylvania recently received an additional ~$76M formula funding from the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) for plugging, with the potential for an additional $300M more available over the next three to five years.

National Shortfall: Worker Woes

The oil and gas industry is experiencing a shortage of skilled workers: as employees retire or leave the industry, newer generations are less interested in starting a career in oil and gas. However, recent industry production increases have led to a small rise in energy employment numbers.

To address the labor gaps, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) offers a range of energy industry apprenticeship programs, funding, and resources through national, regional, and state offices. DOL statistics for 2023 indicate there were nearly 24,000 registered apprentices in the energy industry.

Federal funding for plugging has made it’s way to many states, with more on the way, but this rapid influx of money and increased plugging activity has resulted in it’s significant growing pains - finding experienced employees to manage funding, documentation/approvals, source and move equipment, and perform plugging work — has been a real challenge with costs far exceeding initial estimates. The boom and bust cycle of funding has contributed to this as well, with contracting impacted by peaks and valleys in costs and availability for labor and equipment.

Plugging Pace: More Change Needed

While plugging programs are gaining steam working through issues to more efficiently apply federal funding, they have been slow to embrace innovative technologies used by the oil and gas industry to accelerate decommissioning. In many cases this is due to the nature of plugging regulations, which often require a request for variance and individual approval on a per-well basis to utilize technologies other than cement for remediation. Even though more orphan wells have been plugged in Pennsylvania with IIJA funding than were plugged over the past 10 years combined, the current plugging pace and associated costs are not sufficient to address the issue in a timely manner. Current estimates project orphan well plugging will continue for decades to come if the pace is not significantly accelerated.

While cement remains the mainstay for creating a long-term seal in a well, it has been recognized that cement does not create a competent seal in all situations. A certain percentage of wells that have been plugged continue to leak methane. Incremental rig time, manpower, and funds are wasted drilling out failed cement plugs and starting from scratch when innovative alternatives exist that can save time and money to accelerate plugging.

BioSqueeze has a proven solution to eliminating this unnecessary rework. Our unique solution utilizes non-pathogenic microbes injected into failed cement that form limestone in leak pathways allowing the well to be permanently decommissioned. BioSqueeze has sealed over 150 wells across the US and Canada and looks forward to working with more orphan well programs to increase the number of wells plugged per year by eliminating time spent drilling out failed cement.