NY well plugging bonds.
From $100. Enter your amount.
Before drilling begins, New York requires the owner or operator of a regulated well to furnish and continuously maintain financial security with the Department of Environmental Conservation — the Well Plugging and Surface Restoration Bond on Division of Mineral Resources form 85-02-2, under ECL § 23-0305 and 6 NYCRR Part 551. Premiums cost 1% of the bond amount plus a $25 fee, $100 minimum. Enter the penal sum your well count and depth require, and your exact price appears at the application.
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Apply to filed in one sitting.
There is no underwriting queue for the standard well plugging bond — enter your penal sum, pay, and file the executed bond with the Division of Mineral Resources. Here is the whole thing:
Apply online
Your operator details exactly as registered with the Division, the penal sum your well count and depth require, and the effective date. The application also carries a credit consent that authorizes a soft pull only.
Pay & e-sign
The bond is checkout-priced from a $100 minimum, so it issues the moment you pay. Large six-figure penal sums on deep wells may draw a brief underwriter review first.
File with the Division of Mineral Resources
Form 85-02-2 and a certified power of attorney go to NYSDEC, Division of Mineral Resources, 625 Broadway — 3rd Floor, Albany, NY 12233-6500. Wet-ink originals mailed whenever the Bureau of Oil and Gas Regulation insists on them.
What it is and who needs it.
What the well plugging bond actually guarantees
New York regulates wells drilled for oil, gas, solution salt mining, brine, storage, and disposal — plus stratigraphic, geothermal, and brine disposal wells deeper than 500 feet — under Article 23 of the Environmental Conservation Law, administered by the DEC Division of Mineral Resources. ECL § 23-0305(8)(e) requires that, prior to the commencement of drilling of any well, the operator furnish and continuously maintain a bond acceptable to the Department, conditioned on performance of that operator’s plugging responsibilities.
Form 85-02-2 binds the principal and surety unto the State of New York in the stated penal sum, and its condition is that the principal comply with the law and the Department’s rules on the proper plugging of such wells and adequate restoration of the adjacent surface terrain. If the operator does not, the Department may call on the surety to complete the reclamation. Total surety liability for any one or more recoveries never exceeds the penal sum, and the bond is continuous — it stays in force until the Department releases the surety, or the surety cancels on 90 days’ advance written notice to both the principal and the Division.
It is not insurance for you — if the surety pays, you repay the surety. Two Article 23 traps are worth knowing. First, DEC’s financial-security rule under 6 NYCRR Part 551 keeps your security on file until a subsequent owner files acceptable security and the Department approves the transfer, or the well is plugged and abandoned to the Department’s satisfaction under Part 555 — selling the well does not release you by itself. Second, failure to maintain the security is deemed a breach of your plugging responsibilities and entitles the Department to claim the proceeds outright. We track the term and send renewal notices 60 and 30 days out so the filing never lapses.
You need this bond if you are
One application, issued the moment you pay.
These are the actual issuing fields — operator details, the penal sum, an effective date, and a credit consent that authorizes a soft pull only.
Start the application →Common questions.
Other New York bonds.
File your DEC security today.
From $100, issued the moment you pay, soft pull only. Enter your penal sum and file form 85-02-2 with the Division of Mineral Resources. Free until issued.