38 Applied Geoscience Approaches for Legacy Oil and Gas Wells

This technical session will highlight the applied work to address the complex environmental challenges of legacy oil and gas exploration including  location, data management, monitoring, risk assessment, and remediation of orphaned and abandoned wells.

Tuesday, 24 March 2026
8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
CCC, Room 26

Finding and Characterizing Undocumented Orphaned Oil and Gas Wells in Pennsylvania

Paper number: 38-2
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:25 AM – 8:45 AM

Authors

Abstract

Hundreds of thousands of undocumented orphaned oil and gas wells are estimated to exist in the United States. These wells have no formal owner, and often unknown locations and conditions. They can emit harmful liquids and gases, such as methane and other volatile organic compounds, posing risks to the environment, climate, and human health. Previous drone-based magnetometry and methane survey methods for locating undocumented wells and detecting their methane emissions have undergone limited field verification, leaving substantial uncertainties regarding their effectiveness. Here we present an integrated framework for identifying and characterizing undocumented orphaned oil and gas wells in Northwest Pennsylvania. We describe results from a drone-based magnetometry survey used to identify candidate undocumented wells, followed by regulatory-field-verification using metal detectors and validation at a subset of locations with ground-based magnetometry. We also evaluate the accuracy of documented well locations in state databases and assess the value of historical well records for identifying undocumented wells. Finally, we present an assessment of the potential for drone-based methane surveys based on tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) to detect methane emissions in hilly, forested terrain, validated with direct ground-based measurements. Together, these results will inform the development of practical guidelines and real-world approaches for identifying and evaluating undocumented wells in the United States and elsewhere.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 2

doi: 10.1130/abs/2026NE-411289

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