Plugging methane-leaking oil, gas wells in the U.S. will cost

On Feb 24, 2022

The first U.S. oil well was drilled in Pennsylvania more than 150 years ago. Millions more followed, dotting the country from Southern California to Texas, Oklahoma and Appalachia.

But those wells don’t last forever. In fact, a well only produces a significant quantity of natural gas for between 20 to 40 years.

After that, the company that owns the well is supposed to plug it with cement to prevent it from releasing methane into the air and leaking contaminants into the groundwater or at the surface. But it’s an expensive process, costing thousands of dollars for onshore wells and millions for offshore wells.

Oil giants like Chevron and ExxonMobil have the funds to plug their wells. But small, less well-financed operators often can’t afford to do so. Others go bankrupt, leaving wells “orphaned,” and then the plugging responsibility falls to the government.

Steve Feldgus, the deputy assistant secretary for Land and Minerals Management at the U.S. Department of the Interior, says that there’s no way to estimate the exact number of the country’s orphaned wells.

“States have counted about 130,000, but the [federal Environmental Protection Agency] estimates there might be as many as two million or more. And a lot of these are very old wells where the recordkeeping isn’t very good, and we just don’t know exactly where they are,” he said. States go out and look for more, and “they keep finding them.”

Historically, states haven’t had the resources to deal with the magnitude of the problem. But now, President Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill is devoting serious money — $4.7 billion — to addressing the issue.

What it takes to plug a well

At the Placerita Oil Field in northern Los Angeles County, the California Geologic Energy Management Division is plugging 56 orphaned oil and gas wells.

Karam Singh

Bruce Weihs, senior oil and gas engineer at the California Geologic Energy Management Division, or CalGEM, is overseeing the project. He estimates the site hasn’t had viable owners for about 30 years, after the last known operators, Caltico and Century Oil, went bankrupt. The state is just now getting around to plugging the wells.

“In this case, there’s been no activity for so long, some people have moved into the area,” Weihs said. “There’s schools nearby, there’s houses nearby, there’s highways nearby. All these need protecting.”

About 9 million Americans live within a mile of a documented orphan well, which can pose both an environmental hazard as well as an eyesore.

“A lot of these orphan wells are, you know, either a pipe sticking out of the ground, which creates their own danger, or it can come with a whole set of old oil and gas infrastructure — tanks, pumpjacks, things that are just left behind to rust,” Feldgus said.

Many of these old wells are also leaking methane, a particularly potent greenhouse gas that has over 80 times the global-warming potential of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.

At the Placerita Oil Field, they’ve removed about 900…