2020 Summary & Trends - Oil, Gas And Solution Mining
Division of Mineral Resources Annual Report
The New York State Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources 2020 Annual Report (PDF) provides an overview of the oil and gas industry in NY, including permits and well completions, production, state land leasing, underground gas storage, solution mining, and well plugging activities. It also provides an overview of the mining industry and mined land reclamation in NY, including mine types and permits, geographic occurrence, owner types, trends, acreage statistics, reclamation, financial security, and enforcement.
2020 Mineral Fact Sheets (PDF) - a set of colorful fact sheets on New York's major mined commodities; suitable for classroom use.
Production, Market Value and Economic Impact
New York State natural gas production in 2020 was 9.6 billion cubic feet (bcf), down approximately 13.5% from the previous year. Trenton-Black River production was down slightly from 2019 at 2.4 bcf, accounting for about 25% of 2020 gas production. Gas production from the Medina decreased by over 18% to 4.5 bcf, accounting for nearly 47% of 2020 gas production. Oil production increased approximately 22% from the previous year to 228,156 barrels (bbls) in 2020.
The oil and gas produced in New York State in 2020 is valued at an estimated $28.4 million. Approximately $0.9 million was generated for local government taxes, and nearly $3.5 million was generated in royalties for landowners.
Wells
In 2020, New York well operators reported 14,612 wells (all regulated well types). Most of these wells were drilled to explore for and/or produce oil or natural gas. Other regulated well types reported in 2020 total include underground gas storage, solution salt mining, geothermal, brine disposal, monitoring, and stratigraphic. The total number of wells completed decreased 45% from the previous year to 81.
In 2020, a total of 201 operators reported 2,858 wells with no (zero) production for the entire year. This is in addition to the over 7,000 orphaned and unplugged wells in DEC's records.
At the end of 2020, New York held $20.26 million in financial security to guarantee well plugging and site reclamation.
Regulatory Activity
In 2020, the DEC's Division of Mineral Resources (DMN or Division) issued 87 drilling permits, and operators plugged 112 wells in accordance with DMN-issued plugging permits. In addition, 68 orphaned wells were plugged by DMN and 4 orphaned wells were plugged by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Total drilled depth of all wells for the year was approximately 138,229 feet (or over 26 miles).
No compulsory integration hearings were conducted in 2020.
Division of Mineral Resources' Oil and Gas staff traveled 61,409 miles to perform 5,759 inspections in 2020. Staff inspect well sites:
- during permit application review;
- during drilling and plugging work, with emphasis on cementing operations;
- to ensure regulatory requirements are followed and that violations, if any, were remediated;
- during production and prior to ownership transfers to ensure compliance;
- to score abandoned wells to assess relative threat to the environment and public safety in support of well plugging initiatives;
- to ensure that reclamation meets requirements; and
- to investigate complaints.
DMN, Bureau of Oil and Gas Regulation
625 Broadway
Albany, NY 12233
