*Abandoned wells* - 17% leak factor
Aug 4, 2010 8:02:00 GMT -8
Post by moabiter on Aug 4, 2010 8:02:00 GMT -8
An exhaustive investigative report by the Associated Press released Wednesday said there are more than 27,000 abandoned wells in the Gulf and 17% or 4,590 could be leaking.
Abandoned off-shore Gulf wells are not inspected but the rate of abandoned wells on land that leak is that 17% factor. The AP said there was concern for at least 3,500.
The AP investigation said federal rules for "temporarily abandoned" wells in the Gulf are routinely circumvented and about 1,000 wells in that category have not been checked for decades.
Geology experts say years of exposure to sea water and underground pressure can cause cementing and piping to corrode much as a volcano can awaken.
Industry spokesmen quoted in the AP story deny such events can happen if the wells are plugged properly. It is true that the technological process has improved in recent years but not to older wells sealed in the Gulf dating back to the 1940s.
"There has been a few occasions where wells that have been plugged have to be entered and re-plugged," said Greg Rosenstein, a vice president at Superior Energy Services, a New Orleans company that specializes in this work for offshore wells.
The AP report maintains the rules set down by the Minerals Management Service, now the Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement agency, lack teeth and rely solely on paperwork provided to them by the industry.
In California, it said, state inspectors sealed "several dozen" abandoned offshore wells, and in Texas,more than 21,000 abandoned wells were plugged to control pollution, according to that state's comptroller's office.
"In deeper federal waters, though — despite the similarities in how such wells are constructed and how sealing procedures can fail — the official policy is out-of-sight, out-of-mind," the AP said.
It reported MMS fined seven companies $440,000 between 2003 and 2007 for improper plug-and-abandonment work.
The report concludes no one really knows how many abandoned wells are leaking — and how badly because they don't want to know.
Both the government and industry appear unconcerned. As an example, a team of researchers tried to locate a well 20 miles off Louisiana reported leaking five years after it was abandoned. Satellite radar images were no help because MMS withheld critical information that could have helped verify and locate the well.
John Amos, the geologist who wrote the study, said "I kind of suspected that this was a project almost designed to fail." He said the agency refused to tell him "how big and widespread a problem" they were dealing with in the Gulf.
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www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10657124
Abandoned off-shore Gulf wells are not inspected but the rate of abandoned wells on land that leak is that 17% factor. The AP said there was concern for at least 3,500.
The AP investigation said federal rules for "temporarily abandoned" wells in the Gulf are routinely circumvented and about 1,000 wells in that category have not been checked for decades.
Geology experts say years of exposure to sea water and underground pressure can cause cementing and piping to corrode much as a volcano can awaken.
Industry spokesmen quoted in the AP story deny such events can happen if the wells are plugged properly. It is true that the technological process has improved in recent years but not to older wells sealed in the Gulf dating back to the 1940s.
"There has been a few occasions where wells that have been plugged have to be entered and re-plugged," said Greg Rosenstein, a vice president at Superior Energy Services, a New Orleans company that specializes in this work for offshore wells.
The AP report maintains the rules set down by the Minerals Management Service, now the Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement agency, lack teeth and rely solely on paperwork provided to them by the industry.
In California, it said, state inspectors sealed "several dozen" abandoned offshore wells, and in Texas,more than 21,000 abandoned wells were plugged to control pollution, according to that state's comptroller's office.
"In deeper federal waters, though — despite the similarities in how such wells are constructed and how sealing procedures can fail — the official policy is out-of-sight, out-of-mind," the AP said.
It reported MMS fined seven companies $440,000 between 2003 and 2007 for improper plug-and-abandonment work.
The report concludes no one really knows how many abandoned wells are leaking — and how badly because they don't want to know.
Both the government and industry appear unconcerned. As an example, a team of researchers tried to locate a well 20 miles off Louisiana reported leaking five years after it was abandoned. Satellite radar images were no help because MMS withheld critical information that could have helped verify and locate the well.
John Amos, the geologist who wrote the study, said "I kind of suspected that this was a project almost designed to fail." He said the agency refused to tell him "how big and widespread a problem" they were dealing with in the Gulf.
________________________
www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10657124