Old Oil and Gas Wells Could Find Second Life Producing Clean Energy

"Millions of inactive wells are littered across the United States, the relics of earlier eras of fossil fuel production. A large number of the sites have no official owner, and many are still polluting groundwater and leaking heat-trapping methane. The country has barely scratched the surface in dealing with this problem."

"Policymakers in both Republican- and Democratic-led states are exploring whether these sites could instead be converted into new wells for producing geothermal energy. The holes are already drilled in the ground, after all. And regions with widespread oil and gas development have rich subsurface data that geothermal firms need in order to determine where and how to build their carbon-free systems."

"In Oklahoma, the state Senate is considering a bill that would create a process for companies to buy abandoned oil and gas wells and repurpose them for geothermal energy or underground energy storage. Oklahoma has identified over 20,000 such wells, and state regulators estimate that it would take 235 years and hundreds of millions of dollars to plug all of them. Fixing a single old well can cost anywhere from $75,000 to $150,000 or more, by some calculations, depending on where it's located and how complicated it is to clean up."

"The Well Repurposing Act, which passed Oklahoma's House in March, is modeled after a similar law that New Mexico adopted last year to address its 2,000-plus orphan wells. The Oklahoma bill "recognizes that these wells are a liability, and that there may be a way to turn them into some sort of revenue generation and give them value,""

Millions of inactive oil and gas wells across the United States are abandoned, often without clear ownership, and many continue to pollute groundwater while leaking methane. States are considering converting these wells into geothermal energy wells because the drilling already exists and subsurface data from past oil and gas development can help geothermal firms plan carbon-free systems. The approach is new and largely untested, but scientists and startups are developing methods and states are beginning to remove regulatory barriers and fund studies. Oklahoma is evaluating legislation to let companies buy abandoned wells and repurpose them for geothermal energy or underground energy storage, citing more than 20,000 identified wells and high costs and long timelines for plugging them. The bill is modeled on New Mexico’s recent orphan-well law.

Read at WIRED