The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is set to study petitions seeking to raise oil and gas bonds, requiring oil and gas well owners to set aside the full cost of plugging their wells, according to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The environmental groups that introduced the petitions say the increases are necessary to protect the state and its taxpayers from having to bear the mounting cleanup costs and environmental damages when companies abandon wells.

The petitions would raise bond rates for shale wells and traditional wells that were drilled since 1985 to the full costs of plugging the particular type of well. According to the petitioners, the cost of plugging and reclaiming a conventional oil and gas well is $38,000 and a Marcellus shale well is $83,000.

Pennsylvania’s current bond rate for conventional wells is $2,500 per well or a blanket bond of $25,000 to cover all of a company’s wells. The current bond rates for shale wells depend on the length of the well bore and the number of wells covered under a blanket bond, but amount to $10,000 or less per well.

Wells drilled before 1984 don’t require a bond.

Learn more: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette > Pa. DEP to study raising oil and gas well plugging bonds