The State Industrial Commission will move to confiscate all the production equipment and any salable oil from four oil wells operated by Apex Energy in Mountrail and Williams counties to recover some of the money the state put into plugging and reclaiming the company's wells.

The confiscatory action scheduled July 24 is the result of a new law that requires wells abandoned for a year be plugged and reclaimed, put back into production, or put on temporary abandonment status.

Since the law was passed, dozens of long-abandoned wells have been plugged and are being reclaimed, or were put back into production, said Tom Irgens, a Springbook farmer and a member of the Dakota Resource Council's oil and gas task force.

If companies don't act, the state can plug and reclaim wells and force the company to post a bond up to $65,000, or confiscate the company's oil and equipment, as in the action pending against Apex.

DRC looked at a list of 100 abandoned wells and found that 40 are either being reclaimed or were put back into production. Lynn Helms, director of the Department of Mineral Resources, said the remaining 56 wells are subject to the bill's provisions at this time.

Irgens said the Department of Mineral Resources has done a commendable job and the bill appears to be successful and he's confident more will be accomplished this year.

"There is still much to do in order to get abandoned wells cleaned up," he said.