Abandoned oil wells

[Bigjay73]

Are any of the 117,000 wells on BLM/state trust land?

Landowners sue oil company for allegedly abandoning well on property: 'We need the oil and gas companies to be accountable'

"They said the well was orphaned and was now the responsibility of the state, and so it would be years probably before anything could be done to assist with our situation."

www.yahoo.com

 

[Wild Bill]

Not at all surprised. Not the same scale, but there are a bunch natural gas wells here in NW SD the are on state trust land that are owned by a company out of Texas that last I read, couldn't afford to plug them. State didn't wanna take them over, as they'd inherit the lien on them, and they don't wanna have to pay to have them plugged.
Sticky situation.
Seems like these situations seem to be common for smaller companies. Pretty much a lose-lose situation.

 

[Dsnow9]

Are any of the 117,000 wells on BLM/state trust land?

Landowners sue oil company for allegedly abandoning well on property: 'We need the oil and gas companies to be accountable'

"They said the well was orphaned and was now the responsibility of the state, and so it would be years probably before anything could be done to assist with our situation."

www.yahoo.com

@AvidIndoorsman might be able to answer that question

 

[marksjeep]

https://coloradosun.com/2024/02/24/colorado-orphaned-oil-wells-cleanup-lawsuit/

Different article about the lawsuit.

 

[Bambistew]

Ridiculous. They should be bonded to cover the cost of decommissioning and reclamation. If it costs too much to bond it or clean it up, then no permit.

 

[SAJ-99]

Are any of the 117,000 wells on BLM/state trust land?

Landowners sue oil company for allegedly abandoning well on property: 'We need the oil and gas companies to be accountable'

"They said the well was orphaned and was now the responsibility of the state, and so it would be years probably before anything could be done to assist with our situation."

www.yahoo.com

Yes. The Infrastructure bill had $600m (I'm estimating off memory) to go to capping old wells.

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

@AvidIndoorsman might be able to answer that question

Definitely.

Ridiculous. They should be bonded to cover the cost of decommissioning and reclamation. If it costs too much to bond it or clean it up, then no permit.

Some were drilled before that was a thing.

It’s a complex issue for sure and there are likely abandoned wells that were drilled within the last 15-20 years and definitely bonds should have been higher, but a lot of these are super old. 1930s… maybe older. I know of a handful of wells that were drilled in the 1800s that are still going in PA.

These are some of our oldest active wells... we took over the plugging liability when we acquired them, but obviously we are not the original operator. I bet that 54' well has changed hands 30 times at least.

 

[MNElkNut]

I am currently managing a project to abandon some of these wells. They can be very old and come in various states of disrepair. Many times depth is unknown as well as where the gas bearing zones are located. Some are emitting methane, some are not. Some have debris thrown down the wells by someone that hampers the efforts to plug. Was at one location and had a black bear saunter by, that was kinda cool. There are a lot of them out there, that is for sure!

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

Just looked up Painted Pegasus

My db has 222 wells 157 of which were drilled before 1990, most recent was 2011.

 

[Beignet]

Don’t know all the nuances and hate being such a cynic, but all this subsidizing of extractive industries then being on the hook for cleaning up their messes is really a load of bullcrap.

 

[Hnthrdr]

If nothing else this should be a really good lesson… that has seemingly not been learned and a guide going forward especially if gov wants to put solar all over blm…. We better have a plan on how to clean it up, before we start

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

It’s always interesting to me that these articles seem to gloss over the fact that every operator who has ever owned the well is responsible for the plugging liability, if the current operator is defunct it reverts to the prior. You’re never really “off the hook”.

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

Don’t know all the nuances and hate being such a cynic, but all this subsidizing of extractive industries then being on the hook for cleaning up their messes is really a load of bullcrap.

An interesting part of figuring out hunting and fishing in Michigan has been which rivers are so polluted that the fish and to some extent turkeys and deer near them are unfit for consumption.

Greatest generation really did a number on the state.

… being on the hook for sure, but also something we all should keep in mind when Republicans say they want to dismantle the EPA, repeal the clean water/air acts, etc.

We are still literally paying to clean up all kinds of projects that occurred before those measure were put in place.

 

[longbow51]

If nothing else this should be a really good lesson… that has seemingly not been learned and a guide going forward especially if gov wants to put solar all over blm…. We better have a plan on how to clean it up, before we start

You mean actually doing a total systems analysis from raw material extraction, manufacturing, installation, all the way to disposal of solar cells and land reclamation? Nah, that ain't happening.

 

[44hunter45]

Ridiculous. They should be bonded to cover the cost of decommissioning and reclamation. If it costs too much to bond it or clean it up, then no permit.

Don’t know all the nuances and hate being such a cynic, but all this subsidizing of extractive industries then being on the hook for cleaning up their messes is really a load of bullcrap.

Bonding wont stop this crap when the forfeiting the bond is cheaper than the cleanup cost. Or simply file bankruptcy and change your company name like some low class furniture store.
Pretty damn good business plan.

If the bonds do not cover the cost of the remediation. they are like a restraining order with a bullet hole in it.

$76k per well is a pittance compared to the value of the crude extracted from these wells over their life cycle. We had friends in the 1980's getting more than that in annual royalties. According to DW Investment group, O&G royalties run between 12.5 and 25%, after extraction costs.

There need to be serious criminal repercussions for this kind of crap.

 

[Beignet]

It’s always interesting to me that these articles seem to gloss over the fact that every operator who has ever owned the well is responsible for the plugging liability, if the current operator is defunct it reverts to the prior. You’re never really “off the hook”.

Not a rhetorical question, but what happens when all prior operators are defunct? Do wells sit and languish the way old mining sites do?

 

[MNElkNut]

Not a rhetorical question, but what happens when all prior operators are defunct? Do wells sit and languish the way old mining sites do?

Yes. They just sit there in most cases. But with the Act mentioned above, states are now getting millions to plug and properly abandon these wells. So finally something is being done. Some of the wells I have worked on are close to 100 years old with extraction companies that went out of business 40-60 years ago.

 

[TheTone]

Leaving lands trashed and walking away has been a mineral extraction industry standard forever

 

[BigHornRam]

You mean actually doing a total systems analysis from raw material extraction, manufacturing, installation, all the way to disposal of solar cells and land reclamation? Nah, that ain't happening.

Numbers don't come close to adding up in this one. Fraud written all over it in this 21st century snake oil scheme. People 100 years from now will being cleaning the green energy mess up while setting up a new snake oil scheme up to replace it with.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/19/business/india-adani-green-energy-plant-climate-intl-hnk/index.html

 

[SAJ-99]

It’s always interesting to me that these articles seem to gloss over the fact that every operator who has ever owned the well is responsible for the plugging liability, if the current operator is defunct it reverts to the prior. You’re never really “off the hook”.

Lawyers and accountants. That is all you need.