Join Our Working Group on Inactive WellsThe Workover Blog | Oct 02, 2025

Changes are coming to our inactive well rules thanks to the Texas Legislature, but there’s more work to do — join our working group on inactive wells!

Governor Abbott officially signed SB 1150 on June 20, 2025, making the bill on inactive well plugging extensions law. The Railroad Commission will need to finalize a rulemaking by the end of December 2026 to implement the new law and develop rules for inactive wells that consider:

• risk to public safety or the environment;
• wellbore and wellhead integrity, including the ability to monitor casing pressure; and
• regional risk considerations, including penetration of corrosive or over-pressured formations and completion in zones containing hydrogen sulfide.

Rulemakings are our opportunity to provide input that will prevent loopholes in the bill from resulting in indefinite plugging extensions, like those allowed for “financial hardship” based on an operator’s history of reactivating wells; or the operator filing a performance bond.

Commission Shift is forming a working group to develop recommendations on what should be included in the rules to protect the public — join us!

Join our working group if:

• you are impacted by inactive or orphaned wells;
• you are a taxpayer who doesn’t want to pay to clean up the messes that profits should cover;
• you have a background or interest in finances, rulemaking, or oil & gas operations; or
• you want to ensure good governance through strong rules.

Join our working group today!

If you’d like to read more about what’s in SB 1150, you can review our one-pager.