Meet The Retired Oil Exec Plugging Forgotten Wells To Reduce Emissions | World Wide Waste

Nine million Americans live near an orphan oil and gas well. These wells have no owner and they were never sealed, so they're leaking out tons of methane and deadly gases unchecked. Some are 150 years old, and were lost with time. So finding and plugging them with cement can be so costly, most states don't have the funds to do it. But with $4.7 billion in funds to address this problem passed with the Infrastructure Bill, there's renewed hope. We follow one ex-oil executive and his team as he hunts down and plugs forgotten oil wells.

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Meet The Retired Oil Exec Plugging Forgotten Wells To Reduce Emissions | World Wide Waste

[justinvance]

Im a driller for a company that plugs abandoned wells in Pa and Wv. Respect to all of these guys that do it. It’s tough physical work. I have a college degree and this pays so much better than my 4 years of college ever will.

[callspreadzero]

Glad he highlighted Louisiana. I could take them to hundreds if not thousands across the marsh and around the delta. Most are from the early oil boom in the 1900’s. Where they plugged this one in the video, around Shreveport to Oil City, there’s tons of old orphans.

[jakekgfn]

Finally someone is doing something about those toxic orphans

[Ed_Crumbs]

I don't think I'll be able to forget the Well Done Foundation. Like, come ON that is one hell of a good name!

[gshak]

Oil companies should have to set aside a trust for every well they drill with enough money to cover cleanup.

[php]

Oil field work is rough, hard and dirty work on the human body. Our modern society cannot function at all without guys like this. So glad to see some of these guys come back and cap those old wells properlty.

[AnimeSunglasses]

It's outrageous that so few execs, in ANY industry, have this man's sense of responsibility. He ought to be the standard.

[electro]

The same way you have to pay deposit for your house you rent before you rent it, the same way these companies should give each state the money to cover the cost of closing the well before they even allow them to drill in the first place. Put that money in some protected account that nobody can touch with some descent interest rate to cover inflation and then everybody is happy. The companies, the states, the people, the environment!

[michellebaron]

*YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE GREAT TO START BUT YOU HAVE TO START TO BE GREAT! - NANCY SHERWOOD*

[jaredguadalupeayala]

This negligence is horrifying. Thank you to the people taking it upon themselves to fix this problem.

[chi-jenyang]

For decades, I have heard about this. Big oil companies sell their near-exhausted wells to avoid environmental remediation costs. Small companies buy these wells, produce for a short while, declare bankrupcy, dissolve the company, and abandon these wells to avoid any environmental costs. Thanks to their irresponsible practices, now we call plugging wells a climate solution.

[bubbleologyresearchinterna]

SISTER2 - Standard Instrumentation Suite Truck Enabled for Response - is a 1 ton package we crane into the bed of a hybrid Ford F150 which supplies the 4.2 kW it needs. We can real time measure methane, ethane, and propane helping to fingerprint the gas as from a well as opposed to a cow.

[mandeep.]

This is depressing but a lil hopeful. This guy is doing extraordinary work 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
I hope that it’s compulsory for creators to close what they open somehow cos that’s just mad. I can’t believe that no one was notified and that many we’re able to get away with such a serious crime.

[Rygoat]

There should be some kind of bounty/reward for people who find the super old completely forgotten wells. I'm sure it would get more people reporting in long forgotten stuff that would otherwise be overlooked

[shubashuba]

These orphans are finally getting the attention they deserve.

[dingus]

Good to see a (former) oil exec actually doing something for the environment for once

[mountaineergirl]

I live in WV and I got curious so I googled a map...turns out there's TWO in my neighborhood - including one not far (less than 100 yds) from an elementary school. I'll be looking very carefully at this map before buying my next home, I'm so glad I saw this video!

[steven.h]

I'm happy to see Curtis and his foundation getting some media exposure.. there's a lot of people out there doing this important work, but as Mary Kang says, 12:06 it's currently not enough. 🤜💥🤛

[GusCraft]

The government should set up an orphan well bounty program. If someone finds, records, and reports the location of an orphan well then they should get some kind of monetary reward. You would see people scrambling to find all these wells in no time.

[thomasgeorgecastleberry]

Oil companies should pay a "plugging fee, " before they are allowed to drill. This money should be held by some entity with the drilling permit.