81,000 Abandoned, Unplugged Oil & Gas Wells In Pennsylvania, Not 56,000 As Originally Thought

[hatrack]

The number of abandoned oil and gas wells that exist in the United States is the subject of a new report by the Environmental Defense Fund. Researchers found more than 81,000 documented wells have been left unplugged by former owners, which far exceeds the previous estimate of 56,000.

There are 8,840 abandoned and unplugged wells documented in Western Pennsylvania, according to the report. The report found regional clusters of orphan wells in the Appalachian region and south central states like Kentucky, Oklahoma and Texas. Oklahoma had the greatest concentration of wells. “It’s almost a visual history lesson of oil and gas development in the United States,” said Adam Peltz, a senior attorney at the Environmental Defense Fund.

When a well dries up, the Oil and Gas Act of 1984 requires the owners and operators to plug them upon abandonment and report that information to the Department of Environmental Protection. Orphan wells have no legal or financial owner and as a result become wards of the state. They are orphaned often when their owner fails to properly decommission the well, leaving the burden on government agencies like the department of environmental protection.

These aren’t just holes in the ground. Orphan wells are a source of climate warming methane emissions. The EPA estimates that emissions from all inactive, unplugged wells ranges from 7 to 20 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year in the form of methane. The Environmental Defense Fund compares this to emissions from 1.5 million to 4.3 million cars.

EDIT

https://www.wesa.fm/health-science-tech/2021-10-18/orphaned-wells-are-a-problem-in-pennsylvania-and-there-are-more-of-them-than-we-thought

[hunter]

1. If I had one of those old wells on my property could I heat my house for free?

Years ago I read a story about a family who did just that. They were drawing all the gas they needed off an abandoned well. This gas was a little rich in hydrogen sulfide, but whatever. American ingenuity and all that. Just don't use copper or brass gas fittings.

My parents once owned a small farm that was formerly a Chevron oil property but there were no abandoned wells on it. Our house was always cold in the winter because my dad wouldn't pay for electric heat and there was no gas service.

My grandparents were paid about one hundred dollars annually for the oil and gas that was extracted from beneath their property, property which presumably reached down to the center of the earth. Most of their neighbors had long ago settled for a lump-sum payment for mineral rights.

This was in California.

The fossil fuel users of today should be paying the entire cost of properly decommissioning these old wells.