There are at least a million dead and forgotten oil and natural gas wells dotting the American landscape, many leaking methane and other toxic chemicals into the air and water, long after their productive days are over. In Pennsylvania alone, there are an estimated 300,000 to 700,000 — and estimated is the key word. The fact is, nobody knows. But we do know that thousands of landowners have these ownerless orphan wells on their property, often without knowing it. The first step to solving a problem like this is to locate it. So EDF, together with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Energy, McGill University and Moms Clean Air Force has launched a project to locate and address hidden orphan wells in western Pennsylvania. Drone-mounted magnetometers and advanced methane detection technologies will be honing in on forgotten orphan wells in the area starting in October and November.
Post-closure liability management may be a rather obscure part of the burgeoning carbon capture and sequestration , or CCS, industry. But more and more lawmakers and regulators in U.S. states and around the world recognize it’s an important piece of their climate change agenda.
By Adam Peltz and Meg Coleman
New Mexico’s legislators have a remarkable opportunity in the coming days to protect New Mexico families, businesses and the environment by revising the antiquated Oil and Gas Act with House Bill 133.
New research from Colorado State University reveals significant quantities of methane leaking from the state’s orphaned oil and gas wells — an urgent problem for the state to address as the number of abandoned oil and gas wells have surged in recent months. This study underlines the importance of both the state’s efforts to plug and remediate orphan wells as well as the efforts underway at the state Air Pollution Control Division to better understand and quantify methane emissions from oil and gas wells in the production sector.
The Louisiana Department of Natural Resources has finalized new rules to help improve management of 17,000 non-productive oil and gas wells by encouraging their proper closure —an action that will create jobs, raise property values across the state and facilitate new clean energy projects.
Louisiana has a long history of oil and gas development, with 50,000 wells distributed across the state and along the coast. The state has a responsibility to ensure none of these wells become an environmental or economic liability.
A long-abandoned oil well sits off Louisiana’s coast
About a third of these wells are non-producing but registered as having future utility, meaning the operator claims that they could be economically productive in the future. As a result, the operator isn’t required to plug the well. However, once wells are idled for more than three years, just one in five ever return to service. Often they will only see a tiny fraction of their former production levels.
Unplugged wells cause a host of economic, environmental and even public health and safety problems. They can leak methane and toxic air pollution, contaminate water, reduce property values and prevent other economic uses of the land.
