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How Texas zombie wells could cause problems in climate change fight - Houston Chronicle

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<meta property="sailthru.title" content="Zombie Wells, Part 3: Sinkholes near old Texas oil wells may signal issues in climate change fight" /><meta name="sailthru.date" content="2023-07-18 13:22:00 -0500" /><meta name="sailthru.description" content="Remnants of densely drilled oil fields are scattered across East Texas towns. But how many threats lay beneath the surface are unknown. " /><meta name="sailthru.author" content="Amanda Drane, Staff writer" /><meta name="sailthru_uid" content="18074000" /><meta name="sailthru_pubname" content="houston-chronicle" /><meta name="sailthru_siteid" content="33" /><meta name="sailthru.tags" content="richard-howe,birol-dindoruk,dan-arthur,ganesh-thakur,adam-peltz,cindy-burchfield,jonathan-diamond,jill-karnicki-visuals,alexandra-kanik-audience,morgan-gage,rebecca-hennes,tommy-hamzik,jordan-ray-hart,texas,daisetta,east-texas,houston,inner-loop,liberty-county,wells,austin,wyoming,tulsa,okla,zombie-wells,natural-resources-defense-council,university-of-houston,all-consulting,environmental-defense-fund,kitty-shivers-key,legislature,elizabeth-conley-interactives,part-2,amanda-drane-editing,key,zombie-wells,natural-resources-defense-council,university-of-houston,all-consulting,environmental-defense-fund,kitty-shivers-key,legislature,elizabeth-conley-interactives,richard-howe,birol-dindoruk,dan-arthur,ganesh-thakur,adam-peltz,cindy-burchfield,jonathan-diamond,jill-karnicki-visuals,alexandra-kanik-audience,morgan-gage,rebecca-hennes,tommy-hamzik,jordan-ray-hart,texas,daisetta,east-texas,houston,inner-loop,liberty-county,wells,austin,wyoming,tulsa,okla,part-2,amanda-drane-editing,key,2fbusiness-26-industrial-2fenergy-26-utilities-2foil-26-gas,2fnews" /><meta name="sailthru.image.thumb" content="https://s.hdnux.com/photos/01/33/52/55/24030028/3/sailthruImage.jpg&quot; />
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<title>How Texas zombie wells could cause problems in climate change fight</title>
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{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","mainEntityOfPage":"https://ww… Texas zombie wells could cause problems in climate change fight","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://s.hdnux.com/photos/01/33/00/41/23857216/3/rawImage.jpg","width"… photo of a new sinkhole, left, in Daisetta, Texas, located close to a sink hole that fell in 2008, photographed on Friday, May 19, 2023 in Daisetta."},"articleBody":"Steel oil well casings clawed like fingers out of the collapsing sinkhole in Daisetta before the fast-receding earth swallowed them. People in the onetime East Texas boomtown watched in awe as a gaping hole nearly the size of two football fields formed within a few hours. The May 2008 sinkhole raised questions with few answers. Then, this past April, a new sinkhole formed just south of the original one. More than a dozen old oil wells were within the footprint of the two sinkholes, yet whether or not they triggered the collapse remains unknown.\u00a0 The investigation Part 1: Texas oil wells are leaking toxic waste, and no one wants to pay to clean it Part 2: How forsaken oil wells are causing environmental chaos across Texas Part 3: Sinkholes near old Texas oil wells may signal issues in climate change fight Rusted well-heads and uncapped holes still dot the earth around Daisetta, whose salt dome \u2014 a geological feature that carried the promise of oil \u2014 lured oilmen there a century ago. The Liberty County town lost its water well six years ago because of saltwater contamination that has yet to be explained. The town plans to drill a new water well, but it lacks the funds to study the threats that may lie beneath the surface. Remnants of densely drilled oil fields are scattered across East Texas towns such as\u00a0Daisetta and in areas just north and south of Houston\u2019s inner Loop. But how many threats lay beneath the surface are unknown.\u00a0 The issues surrounding old wells \u2014 the surprise discovery of undocumented wells, the growing list of orphaned wells, the frequency with which old plugs fail and how damaging unplugged wells can be to public health and the environment \u2014 are poorly understood. Policy solutions and resources to support them are percolating but underfunded, leaving many to fend for themselves.\u00a0 \u201cThere are 400 homes here,\u201d said Cindy Burchfield, a town council member in Daisetta with many unanswered questions. \u201cMore than half of 'em are low income.\u201d The region\u2019s geology likely predisposed the area to collapse, scientists said. But they also agreed orphaned wells likely played a role. Did the open holes allow water to travel deep beneath the surface and dissolve supporting layers below?\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s the question,\u201d said geologist Richard Howe, who has studied Daisetta\u2019s subsidence, or gradual sinking, since 2008. Scientists have a shot at answering it, but it would require \u201clots of money\u201d to bring in the equipment needed, he said.\u00a0 These issues are coming into sharper focus as the energy industry dives into uncharted territory with carbon capture and storage, perceived by many as pivotal in the fight against climate change. Operators would remove climate-warming carbon dioxide from the air and pump it underground for storage, yet unplugged and leaking wells pose risks for the future of the emerging industry because they could allow carbon dioxide to travel back to the surface.\u00a0 That, in turn, could undo climate benefits and endanger humans.\u00a0 The gas used in some oil fields to stimulate oil production has already found its way to the surface through old wells. In one notable case in southern Wyoming in 2016, carbon dioxide, methane and volatile organic compounds leaked into a school, forcing it to temporarily hold classes at a different site while several wells were plugged, according to a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group.\u00a0 Compounding the problem, cement plugs could corrode when salt water and carbonic acid \u2014 the chemical result of carbon dioxide mixed with water \u2014 sloshes around underground. Even the slightest crack can accelerate corrosion, said Birol Dindoruk, endowed professor of petroleum engineering and chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Houston. He said lawmakers and regulators should have strict policies regarding how close carbon storage areas can be to old wells and there should be ongoing monitoring to stay on top of corrosion and leaks. \u201cLooking at these wells, evaluating them and taking care of them is extremely important for carbon sequestration,\u201d Dindoruk said. \u201cI think we need to do our homework.\u201d \u00a0 What we don't know might hurt us Kitty Shivers Key, 78, remembers when oil money flowed into\u00a0Daisetta. There were 10 beauty parlors in town when she was growing up in the 1950s, she recalled. Now, the town doesn\u2019t even have a restaurant and the nearest grocery store is 15 miles away.\u00a0 It confounds Key, a lifetime resident of the Daisetta area and informal town historian, that people in her community still lack basic information about what is going on under their community. She suggested the sinkhole be converted into a ticketed tourist destination to raise funds for more research.\u00a0 What frustrates her most, though, is the truth at the bottom of the sinkhole likely isn\u2019t as bad as it might seem.\u00a0 \u201cNo matter what the doctor tells you,\u201d she said, \u201cit could not be as bad as you could imagine.\u201d Transparency is important, she said. Key and her husband used to run a well-plugging firm. At one point, she said he headed to Austin in a failed attempt to convince the Legislature to require deeds to document the existence of wells on a property. Transparency in real estate transactions is one of many failed policy pushes surrounding the issue of orphaned wells, said Adam Peltz, a director and senior attorney in the Environmental Defense Fund\u2019s energy program. He said more work should be done to monitor wells, to quantify the cumulative emissions coming from unplugged wells and to study impacts of leaking wells on groundwater. Wells should be closely monitored to ensure they aren\u2019t leaking, especially as carbon storage takes off.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s one thing if you know about the orphan well. Then at least you can do something about it,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t know about it, surprise! You have a geyser.\u201d More money, fewer problems The single best way to address the overall problem of orphan wells,\u00a0Peltz said, is to require companies to pay additional bonds for marginal wells \u2014 the low-producing wells often sold to small companies once an oil major has decided they are no longer worth keeping. These are the wells are most often orphaned when small firms go bankrupt or simply shut down and move on, sticking taxpayers with the cost of plugging. Instead of allowing an oil major to sell the low-producing wells to a smaller firm without intervention, Peltz suggested regulators require a hefty bond as part of the transaction \u2014 $75,000 per well. If the firm plugs the well, the government gives the money back. If the firm doesn\u2019t plug the well, the government has the money to do the work. Texas already requires bonds from operators, but the amounts are small compared to the liability, Peltz said. Even Texas, \u201cwhich has by far spent the most money on well closure,\u201d is short on funds needed to fix the problem. \u201cThe blanket bonds are not risk-tailored and the dollar amounts are small,\u201d Peltz said, \u201cso you have this problem where small operators who are not well-financed can have relatively small bonds for relatively large numbers of wells. And that puts state taxpayers at risk.\u201d Another route could be to incentivize well-plugging by offering companies carbon credits for plugging inactive wells, said Dan Arthur, president and chief engineer of Tulsa, Okla.-based ALL Consulting, who has decades of experience working with aging wells and the challenges they pose. \u201cThose liabilities are so much that you\u2019ve got to provide incentives to plug these wells.\u201d Reckoning with past and politics Roughly 80 percent of the orphaned wells are not creating problems, industry observers and scientists interviewed for the story said. But the ones creating problems tend to be significant and clustered in certain areas. \u00a0 That\u2019s why government-run well-plugging programs should also rethink the way they go about plugging wells in aging fields, Arthur said. Wells in a field should be evaluated and plugged as a single unit in the same way they were developed by oil producers. To continue doing it piecemeal can create more headaches, he said.\u00a0 \u201cLet\u2019s say you have a little field that\u2019s 10 wells. Plug one and it may cause another one to be a problem,\u201d he said. \u201cThey don\u2019t get developed one well at a time.\u201d Changing the strategy would require a thorough examination of orphaned wells. Doing it right would take more time than a single election cycle, he said. \u201cThey want to plug these for political gain. The states are under massive pressure,\u201d he said, noting a one-year deadline to use initial disbursements of federal well-plugging funds that expire next year. \u201cIn an ideal world, you\u2019d want to do these things, to identify the problem areas, the problem wells, check \u2018em out.\u201d Certifying that the plug jobs are done correctly would be yet another step, he said. \u201cThat takes extra time and money.\u201d\u00a0 Ganesh Thakur, distinguished professor of petroleum engineering and director of energy industry partnerships at the University of Houston, agreed that the federal government should commission studies to identify and prioritize which wells should get plugged, and when.\u00a0 \u201cIf these orphaned wells are identified properly and they are prioritized and we can focus on those which are the largest culprits, we can make big progress in this area,\u201d he said. Moving forward, he said, wells should be plugged to the highest standards, using the highest quality cement and steel, to preserve the environment and protect the future of the industry. Carbon dioxide is more corrosive than saltwater, oil and gas, and it can more freely move through cracks and leaks, he said. Only after the nation contends with its problem wells can carbon storage be a viable path forward in the fight against climate change. \u201cIt is not the problem of only one operator. It is the problem of the state; it's the problem of the public \u2014 you and me \u00a0\u2014 and it\u2019s the problem of the federal government,\u201d he said. \u201cWe all need to work together. Because things are not going to become better with time. Things are going to get worse with time.\u201d This story is the third in a three-part series. Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here. Credits Reporting: Amanda DraneEditing: Jonathan Diamond and Jill KarnickiVisuals: Elizabeth Conley\u00a0Interactives: Alexandra KanikAudience: Morgan Gage, Rebecca Hennes and Tommy Hamzik\u00a0Project management: Jordan Ray-Hart","articleSection":"Business/Energy","datePublished":"2023-07-18T16:00:00Z","dateModified":"2023-07-18T18:22:18Z","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Amanda Drane","url":"https://www.houstonchronicle.com/author/amanda-drane/&quot;}],"publisher":{"@type":"NewsMediaOrganization","name":"Houston Chronicle","url":"https://www.houstonchronicle.com","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://www.houstonchronicle.com/img/ldjson_logo.png","width":600,"heig…},"location":{"@type":"Place","name":"Houston Chronicle","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","addressLocality":"Houston","addressRegion":"TX"}},"sameAs":["https://houstonchronicle.com/facebook/","https://houstonchronicle.com/t…;]},"description":"Remnants of densely drilled oil fields are scattered across East Texas towns. But how many threats lay beneath the surface are unknown.\u00a0"}
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<header class="article--header articleHeader hasTopper herotextabove"><div class="articleHeader--wrapper"><div class="articleHeader--content"><div class="articleHeader--breadcrumbs"><a class="articleHeader--breadcrumbs-item" href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/">Business</a><span&gt; // </span><a class="articleHeader--breadcrumbs-item" href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/">Energy</a></div><h1 class="articleHeader--headline" aria-labelledby="How Texas zombie wells could cause problems in climate change fight">Zombie Wells, Part 3: Sinkholes near old Texas oil wells may signal issues in climate change fight</h1><div class="articleHeader--subHead hasPhoto"><div class="articleHeader--image videoloop"><!-- heart/article/content/videoloop.tpl -->
<figure><div class="videoloop ft" data-progressive="true" data-component="videoloop"><video class="videoloop ft" autoplay="1" loop="1" muted="1" playsinline webkit-playsinline><source src="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/file/127/05/12705-WestTexasLoop_Daiset…, your browser doesn't support embedded videos.</video></div><figcaption><span class="credits">Elizabeth Conley/Staff photographer</span></figcaption></figure>
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<!-- e hearst/common/chapterNavigation.tpl --><article class="article--content"><section id="articleTop" class="article--content-zone top"></section> <p><span class="dropcap">S</span>teel oil well casings clawed like fingers out of the collapsing sinkhole in Daisetta before the fast-receding earth swallowed them. People in the <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Drilling-Down-…; target="_blank" rel="noopener">onetime East Texas boomtown</a> watched in awe as a gaping hole<strong> </strong>nearly the size of two football fields formed within a few hours.</p>
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<p>The May 2008 sinkhole raised questions with few answers. Then, this past April, <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/trending/article/da…; target="_blank" rel="noopener">a new sinkhole formed just south of the original one</a>.</p>
<div id="paywall" class="content-wrapper"> <p>More than <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/The-great-Texa…; target="_blank" rel="noopener">a dozen old oil wells</a> were within the footprint of the two sinkholes, yet whether or not they triggered the collapse remains unknown. </p>
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<h3>The investigation</h3>
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<a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/zombie-wells-t…;
<span>Part 1:</span> Texas oil wells are leaking toxic waste, and no one wants to pay to clean it
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<span>Part 2:</span> How forsaken oil wells are causing environmental chaos across Texas
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<a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/sinkholes-oil-…;
<span>Part 3:</span> Sinkholes near old Texas oil wells may signal issues in climate change fight
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<!-- e hearst/article/content/notembed.tpl --> <p>Rusted well-heads and uncapped holes still dot the earth around Daisetta, whose salt dome — a geological feature that carried the promise of oil — lured oilmen there a century ago. The Liberty County town lost its water well six years ago because of saltwater contamination that has yet to be explained. The town plans to drill a new water well, but it lacks the funds to study the threats that may lie beneath the surface.</p>
<p>Remnants of densely drilled oil fields are scattered across East Texas towns such as Daisetta and in areas just north and south of Houston’s inner Loop. But how many threats lay beneath the surface are unknown. </p>
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<!-- e hearst/article/content/embed.tpl --> <p>The issues surrounding old wells — the surprise discovery of undocumented wells, the growing list of orphaned wells, the frequency with which old plugs fail and how damaging unplugged wells can be to public health and the environment — are poorly understood. Policy solutions and resources to support them are percolating but underfunded, leaving many to fend for themselves. </p>
<p>“There are 400 homes here,” said Cindy Burchfield, a town council member in Daisetta with many unanswered questions. “More than half of 'em are low income.”</p>
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<p>The region’s geology likely predisposed the area to collapse, scientists said. But they also agreed orphaned wells likely played a role. Did the open holes allow water to travel deep beneath the surface and dissolve supporting layers below? </p>
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<img class="landscape" data-src="https://s.hdnux.com/photos/01/33/00/41/23857231/6/ratio3x2_1200.jpg&quot; alt="A water tower in Daisetta, Texas on Friday, May 19, 2023 in Daisetta. The town’s water wells were contaminated and the town has been working on setting up a new system.">
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<span class="caption"><p>A water tower in Daisetta, Texas on Friday, May 19, 2023 in Daisetta. The town’s water wells were contaminated and the town has been working on setting up a new system.</p></span>
<span class="credits">Elizabeth Conley/Staff photographer</span>
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<img class="landscape" data-src="https://s.hdnux.com/photos/01/33/00/41/23857235/3/ratio3x2_1200.jpg&quot; alt="Cindy Burchfield, who serves on the Daisetta City Council, talks about water issues in the town on Friday, May 19, 2023 in Daisetta.">
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<span class="caption">Cindy Burchfield, who serves on the Daisetta City Council, talks about water issues in the town on Friday, May 19, 2023 in Daisetta.</span>
<span class="credits">Elizabeth Conley/Staff photographer</span>
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<span class="caption-credit hidden-xs">In Daisetta, the town’s water wells were contaminated. Cindy Burchfield, who serves on the Daisetta City Council, and the town have been working on setting up a new system. (Elizabeth Conley/Staff photographer)</span>
<span class="caption-credit visible-xs">In Daisetta, the town’s water wells were contaminated. Cindy Burchfield, who serves on the Daisetta City Council, and the town have been working on setting up a new system. (Elizabeth Conley/Staff photographer)</span> </div>
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<!-- e hearst/article/content/photogrid.tpl --> <p>“That’s the question,” said geologist Richard Howe, who has studied Daisetta’s subsidence, or gradual sinking, since 2008.</p>
<p>Scientists have a shot at answering it, but it would require “lots of money” to bring in the equipment needed, he said. </p>
<p>These issues are coming into sharper focus as the energy industry dives into uncharted territory with carbon capture and storage, perceived by many as pivotal in the fight against climate change. Operators would remove climate-warming carbon dioxide from the air and pump it underground for storage, yet unplugged and leaking wells pose risks for the future of the emerging industry because they could allow carbon dioxide to travel back to the surface. </p>
<p>That, in turn, could undo climate benefits and endanger humans. </p>
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<p>The gas used in some oil fields to stimulate oil production has already found its way to the surface through old wells. In <a href="https://insideenergy.org/2016/11/05/what-happened-in-midwest-the-myster…; target="_blank" rel="noopener">one notable case</a> in southern Wyoming in 2016, carbon dioxide, methane and volatile organic compounds leaked into a school, forcing it to temporarily hold classes at a different site while several wells were plugged, according to <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/regulation-eor-carbon-dioxide-… study by the Natural Resources Defense Council</a>, an environmental advocacy group. </p>
<p>Compounding the problem, cement plugs could corrode when salt water and carbonic acid — the chemical result of carbon dioxide mixed with water — sloshes around underground. Even the slightest crack can accelerate corrosion, said Birol Dindoruk, endowed professor of petroleum engineering and chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Houston. He said lawmakers and regulators should have strict policies regarding how close carbon storage areas can be to old wells and there should be ongoing monitoring to stay on top of corrosion and leaks.</p>
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<p>“Looking at these wells, evaluating them and taking care of them is extremely important for carbon sequestration,” Dindoruk said. “I think we need to do our homework.”  </p>
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<h2>What we don't know might hurt us</h2>
<p>Kitty Shivers Key, 78, remembers when oil money flowed into Daisetta. There were 10 beauty parlors in town when she was growing up in the 1950s, she recalled. Now, the town doesn’t even have a restaurant and the nearest grocery store is 15 miles away. </p>
<p>It confounds Key, a lifetime resident of the Daisetta area and informal town historian, that people in her community still lack basic information about what is going on under their community. She suggested the sinkhole be converted into a ticketed tourist destination to raise funds for more research. </p>
<p>What frustrates her most, though, is the truth at the bottom of the sinkhole likely isn’t as bad as it might seem. </p>
<p>“No matter what the doctor tells you,” she said, “it could not be as bad as you could imagine.”</p>
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<p>Transparency is important, she said. Key and her husband used to run a well-plugging firm. At one point, she said he headed to Austin in a failed attempt to convince the Legislature to require deeds to document the existence of wells on a property.</p>
<p>Transparency in real estate transactions is one of many failed policy pushes surrounding the issue of orphaned wells, said Adam Peltz, a director and senior attorney in the Environmental Defense Fund’s energy program. He said more work should be done to monitor wells, to quantify the cumulative emissions coming from unplugged wells and to study impacts of leaking wells on groundwater. Wells should be closely monitored to ensure they aren’t leaking, especially as carbon storage takes off. </p>
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<p>“It’s one thing if you know about the orphan well. Then at least you can do something about it,” he said. “If you don’t know about it, surprise! You have a geyser.”</p>
<h2>More money, fewer problems</h2>
<p>The single best way to address the overall problem of orphan wells, Peltz said, is to require companies to pay additional bonds for marginal wells — the low-producing wells often sold to small companies once an oil major has decided they are no longer worth keeping. These are the wells are most often orphaned when small firms go bankrupt or simply shut down and move on, sticking taxpayers with the cost of plugging.</p>
<p>Instead of allowing an oil major to sell the low-producing wells to a smaller firm without intervention, Peltz suggested regulators require a hefty bond as part of the transaction — $75,000 per well. If the firm plugs the well, the government gives the money back. If the firm doesn’t plug the well, the government has the money to do the work.</p>
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<p>Texas already requires bonds from operators, but the amounts are small compared to the liability, Peltz said. Even Texas, “which has by far spent the most money on well closure,” is short on funds needed to fix the problem.</p>
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<p>“The blanket bonds are not risk-tailored and the dollar amounts are small,” Peltz said, “so you have this problem where small operators who are not well-financed can have relatively small bonds for relatively large numbers of wells. And that puts state taxpayers at risk.”</p>
<p>Another route could be to incentivize well-plugging by offering companies carbon credits for plugging inactive wells, said Dan Arthur, president and chief engineer of Tulsa, Okla.-based ALL Consulting, who has decades of experience working with aging wells and the challenges they pose. “Those liabilities are so much that you’ve got to provide incentives to plug these wells.”</p>
<h2>Reckoning with past and politics</h2>
<p>Roughly 80 percent of the orphaned wells are not creating problems, industry observers and scientists interviewed for the story said. But the ones creating problems tend to be significant and clustered in certain areas.  </p>
<p>That’s why government-run well-plugging programs should also rethink the way they go about plugging wells in aging fields, Arthur said. Wells in a field should be evaluated and plugged as a single unit in the same way they were developed by oil producers. To continue doing it piecemeal can create more headaches, he said. </p>
<p>“Let’s say you have a little field that’s 10 wells. Plug one and it may cause another one to be a problem,” he said. “They don’t get developed one well at a time.”</p>
<p>Changing the strategy would require a thorough examination of orphaned wells. Doing it right would take more time than a single election cycle, he said.</p>
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<p>“They want to plug these for political gain. The states are under massive pressure,” he said, noting a one-year deadline to use initial disbursements of federal well-plugging funds that expire next year. “In an ideal world, you’d want to do these things, to identify the problem areas, the problem wells, check ‘em out.”</p>
<p>Certifying that the plug jobs are done correctly would be yet another step, he said. “That takes extra time and money.” </p>
<p>Ganesh Thakur, distinguished professor of petroleum engineering and director of energy industry partnerships at the University of Houston, agreed that the federal government should commission studies to identify and prioritize which wells should get plugged, and when. </p>
<p>“If these orphaned wells are identified properly and they are prioritized and we can focus on those which are the largest culprits, we can make big progress in this area,” he said.</p>
<p>Moving forward, he said, wells should be plugged to the highest standards, using the highest quality cement and steel, to preserve the environment and protect the future of the industry. Carbon dioxide is more corrosive than saltwater, oil and gas, and it can more freely move through cracks and leaks, he said. Only after the nation contends with its problem wells can carbon storage be a viable path forward in the fight against climate change.</p>
<p>“It is not the problem of only one operator. It is the problem of the state; it's the problem of the public — you and me  — and it’s the problem of the federal government,” he said. “We all need to work together. Because things are not going to become better with time. Things are going to get worse with time.”</p>
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<p class="MM_onlineOnly" title="CCI Online Only"><em>This story is the third in a three-part series. Read <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/zombie-wells-t…; rel="noopener" target="_blank">Part 1 here</a> and <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/oil-wells-texa…; rel="noopener" target="_blank">Part 2 here</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<h3>Credits</h3>
<p><strong>Reporting:</strong> <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/author/amanda-drane/&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Amanda Drane</a><br><strong>Editing:</strong> <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/author/jonathan-diamond/&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jonathan Diamond</a> and <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/author/jill-karnicki/&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jill Karnicki</a><br><strong>Visuals:</strong> <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/author/elizabeth-conley/&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elizabeth Conley</a> <br><strong>Interactives:</strong> <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/author/alexandra-kanik/&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alexandra Kanik</a><br><strong>Audience: </strong><a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/author/morgan-gage/&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Morgan Gage</a>, <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/author/rebecca-hennes/&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rebecca Hennes</a> and <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/author/tommy-hamzik/&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tommy Hamzik </a><br><strong>Project management:</strong> <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/author/jordan-ray-hart/&quot; target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jordan Ray-Hart</a></p>
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<div class="articleFooter--bio"><p>Amanda Drane is an energy reporter for the Houston Chronicle. She can be reached at amanda.drane@houstonchronicle.com.
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<p>Amanda covers the Texas energy industry and the people affected by it, with a particular focus on oil, gas, chemicals and the transition to cleaner energy. Before joining the paper’s business desk in May 2020 she worked as a City Hall reporter in Massachusetts, where she won regional awards for covering issues such as police accountability and the exploitation of undocumented restaurant workers.
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