• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
BREAKING: 40% of Fossil Fuels Now Under Development Must Stay in the Ground May 17, 2022
Rocky Mountain Glaciers ‘Past Tipping Point’, with Some Expected to Vanish by 2030 May 17, 2022
UK Activists Block Russian Oil Tanker From Docking in Essex May 17, 2022
EXCLUSIVE: Bid to Revive Doomed Nova Scotia LNG Project Collides with Germany’s Net-Zero Plans May 16, 2022
3,800 Residents Ordered to Evacuate after Flooding in Hay River, NWT May 16, 2022
Next
Prev
Home Jurisdictions Canada

Abandoned Wells Emerge as Massive, Largely Unmeasured Methane Risk

June 21, 2020
Reading time: 3 minutes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraction_of_petroleum

Flcelloguy/Wikimedia Commons

50
SHARES
 

The United States is emerging as a focal point of one of the larger problems arising from oil and gas production: the leaky wells left behind when fossils abandon them rather than cleaning up the health and environmental mess they’ve created.

“More than a century of oil and gas drilling has left behind millions of abandoned wells, many of which are leaching pollutants into the air and water,” Reuters writes, in an in-depth report based on review of government data and wide-ranging interviews. “And drilling companies are likely to abandon many more wells due to bankruptcies, as oil prices struggle to recover from historic lows after the coronavirus pandemic crushed global fuel demand.”

Abandoned and leaking wells “have long been recognized as an environmental problem, a health hazard, and a public nuisance,” linked to dozens of cases of groundwater contamination in the U.S. alone, the story notes. “Orphaned wells have been blamed for a slew of public safety incidents over the years, including a methane blowout at the construction site of a waterfront hotel in California last year.”

And scientists and governments are only now beginning to get a handle on the serious climate risk involved, as governments begin tracking the methane leaching from the wells. So far, Reuters says, Canada and the U.S. are the only countries keeping records.

In the U.S. alone, “more than 3.2 million abandoned oil and gas wells together emitted 281 kilotons of methane in 2018,” writes reporter Nichola Groom, citing data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “That’s the climate damage equivalent of consuming about 16 million barrels of crude oil, according to an EPA calculation, or about as much as the United States, the world’s biggest oil consumer, uses in a typical day.”

And after allowing for incomplete data, the EPA says the actual impact could be three times worse. “The agency believes most of the methane comes from the more than two million abandoned wells it estimates were never properly plugged.”

Methane is a shorter-acting greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, but 84 times more potent over the crucial 20-year span when humanity will be pushing to get the worst effects of climate change under control. In April, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported atmospheric methane levels rising at the fastest rate in five years between 2018 and 2019.

Reuters says the problem is less pronounced in Canada, where most fossil production comes from the tar sands/oil sands, although a study earlier this year found that unregulated emissions from those operations could undercut the country’s push for a 40 to 45% methane reduction by 2025. Recent studies have also raised serious concerns about under-reporting of methane emissions in northeastern British Columbia and health and safety risks in Alberta, as well as the climate impacts of an emerging fracking boom in B.C. and Quebec.

Beyond North America, “the global impact is harder to measure. The governments of Russia, Saudi Arabia, and China—which round out the top five world oil and gas producers—did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment on their abandoned wells and have not published reports on the wells’ methane leakage,” Reuters writes.

Without better data, scientists say they can’t put accurate numbers to the global emissions from orphan wells. “But a rough Reuters calculation, based on the U.S. share of global crude oil and natural gas production, would place the number of abandoned wells around the world at more than 29 million, with emissions of 2.5 million tonnes of methane per year—the climate damage equivalent of three weeks of U.S. oil consumption.”

Click here for the rest of an excellent 15-minute read from Reuters.



in Canada, Carbon Levels & Measurement, China, Health & Safety, Legal & Regulatory, Methane, Middle East, Oil & Gas, Shale & Fracking, UK & Europe, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

John Englart
Australia

Australia’s Climate Election: Voters Kick Morrison to the Curb

May 23, 2022
259
Shutterstock
Carbon Levels & Measurement

Greenhouse Gases Trap 49% More Heat than in 1990, NOAA Index Concludes

May 23, 2022
97
@Olihorn1/Twitter
Severe Storms & Flooding

10 Dead, 300,000 Without Power as Sudden Storm Ravages Southern Ontario, Quebec

May 23, 2022
152

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

MustangJoe/Pixabay

Newfoundland Opens New Round of Offshore Oil Bidding

May 19, 2022
278
John Englart

Australia’s Climate Election: Voters Kick Morrison to the Curb

May 23, 2022
259
@Olihorn1/Twitter

10 Dead, 300,000 Without Power as Sudden Storm Ravages Southern Ontario, Quebec

May 23, 2022
152
http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/campaigns/Energy/tarsands/

Alberta Fossils Log Emission Cuts by Exporting Them

May 23, 2022
104
Shutterstock

Greenhouse Gases Trap 49% More Heat than in 1990, NOAA Index Concludes

May 23, 2022
97
Can Pac Swire/flickr

Critics Pounce, HSBC Disavows Exec Who Cautions Against ‘Unsubstantiated, Shrill’ Climate Warnings

May 23, 2022
80

Recent Posts

Province of B.C./flickr

B.C. Eliminates ‘Broken’ Royalty System, Offers Fossils a ‘Money-Back Guarantee’

May 23, 2022
74
fda54 / Pixabay

ESG Investors Urge Livestock Industry to Diversify, Innovate to Dodge ‘Apollo 13 Moment’

May 23, 2022
60
/pxfuel

Study Finds ‘Ironic’ Link Between Reduced Pollution, More Hurricanes

May 23, 2022
73
Pexels/Pixabay

$8.5B in Debt Guarantees to Help South Africa Phase Out Coal

May 23, 2022
41
Asurnipal/wikimedia commons

Economic Opportunity, ‘Freedom’ Drive Red State Buy-In for Renewables

May 23, 2022
43
Wikimedia Commons

Bahamas to Offer ‘Blue Carbon’ Credits for Ecosystem Protection

May 23, 2022
67
Next Post
Department of Energy/Flickr

Ovintiv Gears for ‘Lower Production Growth’ by Cutting Work Force 25%

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}

2022 ONTARIO GENERAL ELECTION

KEEP UP WITH ONTARIO’S CLIMATE CHANGE ELECTION

election-checkmark
Get Election Notifications

2022 ONTARIO GENERAL ELECTION

KEEP UP WITH ONTARIO’S CLIMATE CHANGE ELECTION

election-checkmark
Get Election Notifications
The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

2022 ONTARIO GENERAL ELECTION

KEEP UP WITH ONTARIO’S CLIMATE CHANGE ELECTION

election-checkmark
Get Election Notifications

2022 ONTARIO GENERAL ELECTION

KEEP UP WITH ONTARIO’S CLIMATE CHANGE ELECTION

election-checkmark
Get Election Notifications
The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

2022 Ontario General Election

Keep up with Ontario’s Climate Change Election

election-checkmark
GET THE NEWS THAT MATTERS MOST

2022 Ontario General Election

Keep up with Ontario’s Climate Change Election

election-checkmark
GET THE NEWS THAT MATTERS MOST
The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

2022 Ontario General Election

Keep up with Ontario’s Climate Change Election

election-checkmark
GET THE NEWS THAT MATTERS MOST

2022 Ontario General Election

Keep up with Ontario’s Climate Change Election

election-checkmark
GET THE NEWS THAT MATTERS MOST
The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?