South Dakota sues Texas oil and gas company for $15.5 million
South Dakota is suing a Texas company for $15.5 million for abandoning 40 natural gas wells in Harding County.
The South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources is requesting that the court require Spyglass Cedar Creek and its general partners Kevin Sellers and March Kimmel to bring the wells in northwestern South Dakota into compliance, as well as pay the state $15.5 million in penalties for abandoning the wells, according to the complaint filed in Hughes County on Monday.
It would cost the state nearly $900,000 to plug the 40 wells, which Spyglass drilled between 2006 and 2010, the Associated Press reported.
According to the DENR complaint:
Spyglass posted two bonds as part of its permit application, one for $20,000 and another for $10,000. But the South Dakota Attorney General's Office learned in July 2018 that Sellers had cashed out the $20,000 bond, leaving the state with only the remaining funds to address the wells.
Read more: https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/politics/2019/05/15/south-dakota-sues-texas-spyglass-cedar-creek-abandon-natural-gas-wells/3683783002/