This PBS report is really stunning. I’ve seen a number of pieces on this issue, but none quite so powerful as this.
From the transcript:
Miles O’Brien:The forests of Pennsylvania are filled with thousands of orphaned and abandoned oil wells, many of them more than a century-old.History’s first oil rush began not far from here in 1859, when Edwin Drake drilled the first commercially viable well. Pennsylvania estimates there are more than 350,000 orphaned and abandoned wells in the state.
Miles O’Brien:The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection estimates the average cost to plug a conventional well like this is about $100,000, but this can vary depending on the depth, the condition of the well, and its accessibility.The cost creates a perverse incentive to keep wells active long past their prime.
Melissa Ostroff:They know the cost of plugging is really high, so they’re going to try to keep it in that gray area as long as possible, where it’s just producing a trickle.
Mary Kang:There were so many times we get there and we are looking for one well and then we will find five, six, or a dozen, and then you start to ask, well, how many are missing?
Miles O’Brien:Kang and other experts estimate there may be a million orphaned oil and gas wells in the U.S., but, right now, only 140,000 of them are documented.The bipartisan infrastructure bill set aside $4.7 billion to begin tackling the problem. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has used the money to greatly accelerate a well-capping campaign, celebrating its 200th finished project in March.
After reading about the proposed restarting of one nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, I got to thinking about enhanced geothermal, specifically what Sage Geosystems, started by former Shell Oil employees, is doing. They are converting a depleted gas well to geothermal. It would seem there’s huge potential for that in Pennsylvania and other states.
A lot of it comes down to useful siting of power plants, so they can focus on the wells that aren’t in the middle of nowhere for geothermal conversion.
Now we just have to figure out what to do with the other 900,000 abandoned wells.
“[F]ormer Shell Oil employees” is all there is to be said about that
Pretty stark reality seeing someone having to where a respirator in the forest.
*wear