The U.S. to Boost Green Jobs, and Curb Emissions by Plugging Old Oil Wells

The Radicle and Well Done Foundation Set Out to Create Ground-Breaking Emissions Offset Project for Abandoned Wells

The toxic legacy of old oil wells in the United States

Plugging abandoned wells

Formed in 2019, the Well Done Foundation (WDF) enables the oil and gas industry to partner with the conservation community to create an alternative pathway to success that benefits all.

The Well Done Process, which does not include any public funding, creates a strategic partnership among regulators, surface owners, and adoptive parties, leading to a safe and seamless system that provides cost-effective and lasting results that improve the environment while working with the industry in a transparent structure that delivers value to its Triple Bottom Line: community partnerships (people), environmental responsibility (planet), and economic benefits (profit).

The chairman Curtis Shuck, who set up the foundation after three decades in the oil and gas industry, wrapped a large bag around the top of the pipe and timed how long it took to quickly inflate with escaping gases.

“This one is averaging about 5,000 cubic feet per day – a lot of impact to the environment,” he explained.

Energy production is today one of the largest drivers of changing land use in the United States, said Matthew D. Moran, a biology professor at Hendrix College.

Most oil and gas wells are on private land, so companies typically lease the rights to drill, and after the wells run out, the rights revert to the owner, he said.

“In many cases, an abandoned pad might be an acre in size, and nothing is going on. It’s an abandoned piece of land, and restoring it costs money,” he explained.

Last year he and other researchers estimated it would cost about $7 billion to restore 430,000 well sites on 800,000 hectares nationally – but found the financial benefits of doing so would be about three times higher.

“We think that’s pretty concrete and direct to the economies in these places,” Moran said. “We consider this an investment.”

In June 2022, California-based Newlight Technologies Inc. (Newlight) and the WDF announced a strategic collaboration to fight climate change that will have the two organizations teaming up for the next decade, plugging orphan wells to prevent methane emissions and restoring the impacted surface areas.

Beginning in November 2021, the two entities started working together to develop a multi-year program of projects to help prevent methane emissions from abandoned wells across the United States. Newlight funded its first orphan well in Montana, the Anderson #5, which was plugged on November 10, 2021, and helped the WDF complete the Anderson Lease Complex of nine orphan wells in Toole County, MT.

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“We are excited to be working with a mission-driven brand like AIR CARBON, and the WDF fully supports the important impact it can have on our environment,” Shuck said. “This collaboration is an amazing next step for our organization, and we plan to announce future project plans shortly.”

“For this fight, we need to take an all-of-the-above approach—capturing what is emitted and preventing it from being emitted in the first place,” Newlight CEO Mark Herrema said. “We love what the Well Done Foundation is doing to identify and cap abandoned wells, and we’re excited to team up to accelerate this effort.”

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