A look at the nitty-gritty of plugging abandoned oil and gas wells

Inside Climate News reports on the Well Done Foundation, a private entity trying to assist in the work of plugging abandoned wells.

Here's how bad the need is:

In a 2023 peer-reviewed study, researchers led by McGill University civil engineer Mary Kang estimated that 13 percent of Americans—about 4.6 million people—live within about a half-mile of an AOOG well. “These wells have the potential to contaminate water supplies, degrade ecosystems, and emit methane and other air pollutants … present[ing] risks to climate stability and to environmental and human health,” the study stated.

The story goes on to note details of the problem, details well known by many people in the Permian Basin:

Some are relatively inert on their own, but other unplugged wells might vent hydrocarbons like methane, volatile organic compounds like the carcinogen benzene or deadly gases like hydrogen sulfide. Some leak oil, or a brine called “produced water” contaminated with heavy metals, chemicals or radioactivity. Some pollute underground aquifers or nearby surface waters. Others create their own noxious lakes. Changing subterranean conditions can make previously stable AOOG wells vent or leak. 

Wastewater from oil and gas production is typically disposed of by pumping it into spent, adjacent oil and gas wells, but overpressurized underground disposal reservoirs can force it back to the surface where it can disrupt production from other oil and gas wells.

On federal, often BLM land, the problem is that bonding requirements haven't been updated in 40 years. On the state level, in the greater near Southwest, Colorado and New Mexico, though not perfect, are better than Texas in various ways. I don't know about Oklahoma, but wouldn't hold my breath.

That said, since wingnuts like to talk "moral hazard" so much, isn't this work by a private company kind of enabling moral hazard? 

That said, kudos to Curtis Shuck for founding Well Done Foundation and the work it's doing in Oklahoma. And, since a photo is sometimes worth more than 1,000 words, click the link.