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Cost to plug a well per foot

In the 3 states with a graded per-foot estimate, the median reported plugging cost runs from $14.75 per foot in Colorado to $47.94 per foot in New Mexico.

Per-foot figures use only the 4,478 wells (38% of those on file) whose total depth is known from a source that allows commercial use. Cost per foot falls steeply as wells get deeper, because much of the cost of a job does not depend on depth, so a per-foot rate from shallow wells overstates the cost of a deep one.

StateMedian cost per footTypical range (10th–90th pct.) GradeWells with depthHeld-out error
Colorado$14.75$6.62 – $55.38B29936%
Louisiana$17.47$10.84 – $22.19A56015%
New Mexico$47.94$31.15 – $120.93B7732%

Data through 2026-06-30. Sample sizes are the wells behind each figure. Grades come from held-out tests, not in-sample fit: A needs 200+ independent cost observations and a held-out error of 25% or less; B needs 60+ and 40% or less. Anything weaker is shown as Insufficient data. How grading works.

States not listed have depth for too few wells, or too much spread, to grade. No depth source with terms that allow commercial use is available for Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska, West Virginia or California.

Estimate a specific well

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