orphaned oil & gas wells
“Super-emitting” oil wells near Denver are releasing 142% more pollution per hour than state average, CSU study finds
Adams County had three wells with massive emissions, the largest leaking 165 pounds of methane per hour. State will use the data to prioritize plugging orphan wells.
100 plugged and 300,000+ to go; Abandoned well cleanup effort jumps with federal money
Plugging 100 oil and gas wells in 10 months is more than Pennsylvania has done in six years, thanks to federal funds from the Infrastructure Law.
Newsletter
The Narwhal: Alberta taxpayers pay another $14M tab for oil companies’ rent
Alberta paid $14 million in rent on behalf of delinquent oil companies in 2022. The government is supposed to recoup that money from companies but data shows debt collection remains below one per cent. Drew Anderson writes the story for The Narwhal.
In a nutshell:
Drew Anderson writes about what seems to have become a perennial problem in the extraction industry. These folks do not like to spend money on cleaning up their messes. In this case, it's oil and gas. Apparently, in the petro-province of Alberta, a landowner must grant access to their property for oil and gas exploration, for which they than receive annual compensation. If the well is abandoned or the rent is otherwise deemed uncollectible, financial responsibility falls to the taxpayers.
Key quote:
“I would guess that if we took all of these sites where surface lease payments are not being paid, we’d find a lot of so-called active sites that probably should be considered inactive and the regulator should be pushing for closure work on those things.”
Big picture:
Unpaid rents is but a small symptom of a much larger deadbeat well-owner problem. With the current number of abandoned wells in Alberta alone hovering around 75,000 there are certain to be massive unfunded liabilities coming due. They often leak methane as well as other pollutants into soil and groundwater, impacting ecosystems and posing a public health threat to surrounding communities. The responsibility for decommissioning and reclaiming abandoned wells is intended to fall on the well operators but enforcement appears to be lacking.
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‘Outrageously bad’: Alberta taxpayers pick up another multimillion tab for oil companies’ land rent
Alberta paid $14 million in rent on behalf of delinquent oil companies in 2022. The government is supposed to recoup that money from companies but data shows debt collection remains below one per cent.
Newsletter
Price to plug old wells in Gulf of Mexico? $30 billion, study says.
There are roughly 14,000 old, unplugged wells in the gulf that are at risk of springing leaks or causing environmental damage, researchers found.
Newsletter
As Alberta landowners struggle with orphan wells, documents show regulator anxious about gaps in system
The Alberta Energy Regulator feared a ‘landslide’ of orphan wells — already an ‘exponentially large drain on Albertans’ — was coming. The province has since started implementing reforms, but critics say it’s not enough.
Pay and plug: Federal funds spur cleanup of lost oil wells
The National Park Service has started closing orphaned wells using money provided under legislation signed by President Biden.
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