Abandoned U.S. oil wells still spewing methane, study finds

[Judi Lynn]

Abandoned U.S. oil wells still spewing methane, study finds
Source: Reuters - Mon, 8 Dec 2014 22:27 GMT

By Richard Valdmanis

BOSTON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Some of the millions of abandoned oil and natural gas wells in the United States are still spewing methane, marking a potentially large source of unrecorded greenhouse gas emissions, according to a study released on Monday.

Researchers at Princeton University measured emissions from dozens of abandoned wells in Pennsylvania in 2013 and 2014 and found they were emitting an average of 0.27 kg (0.6 lbs) of methane per day, according to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"These measurements show that methane emissions from abandoned oil and gas wells can be significant," according to the study. "The research required to quantify these emissions nationally should be undertaken so they can be accurately described and included in greenhouse gas emissions inventories."

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is mulling whether to issue mandatory standards for reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas sector as part of President Barack Obama's broad climate action plan.

More:
http://www.trust.org/item/20141208222600-w9whs/

[OKIsItJustMe]

1. PA has many, many abandoned wells

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/1823242/hunting_for_pennsylvanias_abandoned_gas_wells.html

[font face=Serif][font size=5][font color="red"]Special report[/font] Hunting for Pennsylvania’s abandoned gas wells[/font]

28th February, 2013
Dimiter Kenarov

[font size=4]Across the Marcellus Shale, most abandoned oil and gas wells are supposedly harmless. But some are leaking - polluting land, water and air - and now there are concerns about other risks, reports Dimiter Kenarov[/font]

[font size=3]…

It all began in 1859, when Colonel Edwin Drake drilled the United States’ first commercial well near Titusville, Venango County. Since then, there have been an estimated over 300,000 oil and gas wells sunk into the hills of Pennsylvania. When a well stopped producing, it was usually abandoned by its owners, rarely plugged, wellheads and piping taken out for scrap metal but sometimes simply left behind to the ravages of time.

DEP has records of over 140,000 wells, many of which are still in operation, but the rest, more than 150,000, are missing from the annals of history, unregistered, lost among trees and weeds and housing developments, their owners decaying in the same ground they used to dig so ravenously for decayed matter.

It was not until 1984, with the passing of the Oil and Gas Act, setting up comprehensive legislation for the management of drilling sites, that DEP started searching for and plugging in earnest those ownerless, abandoned wells, which it decided to call “orphaned.” For weren’t they like naughty children, lost in the dark forest? Today, most of them are supposedly defunct and harmless, their last breath expired, but a few are known to leak, quietly gurgling oil and gas, polluting land and water and air in their final death throes.

Recently, though, the dead have been resurrected. In December, 2010 in Bradford Township, McKean County, a house exploded, injuring the residents. Two and a half months later and two and a half miles away, another house blew up, while its owner was shoveling snow in the driveway. And then, in the summer of 2012, a 30-foot geyser spouted water and gas for more than a week in Tioga County, in northeastern Pennsylvania, like a whale that had been stirred out its deep, ancient sleep.

…[/font][/font]

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Great minds, Judi, I was just coming here to post this.....

Rec

[Turbineguy]

3. There are a lot in the Gulf too.

[madokie]

4. We used to have one not far from here

Last edited Tue Dec 9, 2014, 08:31 AM - Edit history (1)

at the bottom of a big hill that we used to light and snow sledge down the hill and party around the fire.

ETA: I'm sorry but this well I was talking about is/was a abandoned gas well not an oil well. mybad

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. The OP was about both types of wells (oil and gas)

So, your post was dead-on.