For decades in the tiny Texas Panhandle town of Perryton, John Bozeman has bought oil and gas wells from companies and says he operated them for a lower cost and with better efficiency.

“And I produce the wells until they’re no longer capable of producing,” Bozeman said, “and then I plug them up.”

Recently, he’s been forced to plug some up even before they’ve produced all the oil they can. The far n…