A new organization contends nonprofits would do a better job of reducing the orphan well backlog than government bureaucracies. PHOTO SOURCE: Texas Well Protected Energy Foundation Orphan oil and gas wells are idle wells with unknown or insolvent operators, according to the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC). IOGCC data released in May 2020 show that there were nearly 57,000 documented orphan wells in 25 states as of 2018. Approximately 11% of those wells are in Texas. State and federal government programs exist to fund orphan well plugging and abandonment activities, but the backlog of wells noted above puts the effectiveness of such programs into question. A new Texas-based organization has proposed shifting responsibility for plugging and abandoning orphan wells from government bureaucracies to the nonprofit sector.