On April 3, Post-Gazette reporters Laura Legere and Anya Litvack wrote an in-depth article on how Pennsylvania faces a new wave of abandoned conventional oil and gas wells in the oil patch
They outline a recent agreement involving wells owned by Kane-based ARG Resources and DEP to have another company take over or plug 1,600 conventional wells, dozens of buildings, tanks and roughly 150 miles of road in Warren County after ARG quietly shut down last year, long before the current oil prices crisis.
DEP Deputy for Oil and Gas Management Scott Perry was quoted in the article as saying he sees this as a harbinger of a troubling trend and a “looming crisis.”
There are now about 200,000 abandoned conventional oil and gas wells in the state. Each presents a risk to the environment, ground and surface water based on age, decay and proximity to people. DEP has few resources to plug them.
At the pace DEP is going now, it will take about 17,500 years and $6.6 billion to plug them.
The goal now is to prevent any new abandoned wells.
DEP signed an agreement with AquaPower Chemicals to use the ARG footprint to make products from oil and gas well wastewater.
Perry said, “There is no risk to use [DEP] because we’ve already lost.” Without the agreement the wells would be abandoned.
Perry said DEP doesn’t have the resources to plug abandoned wells because well owners were not required to demonstrate they have the money to pay for that work.
[Note: Politicians from the oil patch prevented the state Oil and Gas Act from requiring conventional oil and gas operators have proper bonding for well closures that would have prevented this kind of potential catastrophe. The blame for the abandonment crisis should be placed at their feet.
[Will we NEVER learn our lesson?]
NewsClips:
Laura Legere/Anya Litvak: PA Faces New Wave Of Abandoned Conventional Oil & Gas Wells
[Posted: April 5, 2020] PA Environment Digest
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