35 Orphan Wells, Fugitive Hydrocarbons, and a Legacy of Efforts Toward a Brighter Future

Sunday, 30 March 2025
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
130AB

PART 2 CAMERON ENERGY AN INDUSTRY CASE STUDY: MINIMIZING COST AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT TO PLUG MORE WELLS

Paper number: 35-5
Program: Theme Sessions
Time: 9:20 AM – 9:40 AM

Authors

Abstract

Cameron Energy Company (Cameron) is a family-owned and operated Conventional Oil and Gas Company headquartered in Warren County Pennsylvania that employs 50+ people and operates ~1800 active wells. Nearly all operations are done “in-house” including pumping, drilling, hydrofracture, well servicing, and plugging. Cameron has a robust plugging program that has plugged over 250 conventional wells in Warren, Forest, McKean and Elk Counties in the last ten years. All but one of those plug jobs have been internally funded by Cameron. This amount of well plugging requires efficiency to minimize both plugging costs and environmental impact. Cameron has built a tracked plugging fleet to help lessen that impact. Difficult wells to access do not always require modern stoned roads for plugging operations. Tracked vehicles have a reduced impact on the ground that is less than most timber harvesting operations. The best example of this is Cameron’s plugging of Lot 396-12 (API: 123-48059) –or- also known as “The Island Well,” plugged in the summer of 2017. Efficiency in cost and impact will continue to be a priority for Cameron. Other state, federal, or private plugging programs would do well to replicate low-impact fleets to maximize plugging efficiency.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 3

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025NE-408088

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