T190 No Well Left Behind: Quantifying Impacts and Improving Management of Active, Abandoned, and Orphaned Oil and Gas Wells to Safeguard Air, Water, and Land Resources

Tuesday, 17 October 2023
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
310 / 311

ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES OF ORPHANED OIL AND GAS WELLS IN THE UNITED STATES

Paper number: T190-2
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 1:35 PM – 1:55 PM

Authors

Abstract

Hundreds of thousands of documented and undocumented orphaned oil and gas wells exist in the United States (U.S.). These wells have the potential to contaminate water supplies, degrade ecosystems, and emit methane and other air pollutants. Thus, orphaned wells present risks to climate stability and to environmental and human health, which can be reduced by plugging. To quantify environmental risks and opportunities of well plugging at the national level, we analyze locations of 81,857 documented orphaned wells, out of the ~130,000 orphaned wells documented in the U.S.

We find that >4.6 million people live within 1 km of a documented orphaned well. 35% of the documented orphaned wells are located within 1 km of a domestic groundwater well, yet only 8% of the wells have groundwater quality data within a 1 km radius. Methane emissions from the documented orphaned wells represent approximately 3%–6% of total U.S. methane emissions from abandoned oil and gas wells, but this estimate is based on measurements at <0.03% of U.S. abandoned wells. Although a US-wide dataset of air pollutant emissions from orphaned wells is not available, benzene was detected in ~70% of abandoned oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania. Overall, environmental monitoring data are not extensive enough to quantify risks, especially those related to air and water quality and human health.

91% of the documented orphaned wells overlie formations favorable for geologic storage of carbon dioxide and hydrogen, meaning that orphaned well plugging can reduce leakage risks from future storage projects. Plugging orphaned wells can provide opportunities for geologic storage of carbon dioxide and hydrogen and geothermal energy development, thereby facilitating efforts to transition to net-zero energy systems.

Our analysis on environmental risks and opportunities of orphaned wells provides a framework that can be used to manage the millions of documented and undocumented orphaned wells in the U.S. and abroad. To conduct such national scale studies, there is a need to fill major gaps in the available data on documented orphaned wells, especially those beyond location including well depth, well type, and date of last production.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 55, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2023AM-391318

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