According to the study, published in an article in the journal “Nature Energy”, the cost will be lower if the focus is on wells close to the coast.
In their study, the researchers confirmed that there are approximately 14,000 inactive oil and gas wells, meaning they have either been officially inactive or been inactive for at least five years, off the south coast. east of the country.
A total of 82,000 wells have been drilled in this area, of which 64,000 have been permanently closed.
Wells located in federal waters or under the jurisdiction of the states of Alabama, Louisiana and Texas, and inactive wells generally must be sealed with cement to prevent leakage of hydrocarbons or other materials.
The closer the wells are to the coast, the greater the risk to the environment.
In 2010, the explosion of a BP oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 people and caused unprecedented pollution of the coasts.
The researchers estimated “the cost of future closures in the Gulf of Mexico at more than $30 billion.”
But plugging wells in shallow water “would cost much less” while “posing greater environmental risks”.
Depreciating about 13,000 wells near the coast will cost about $7 billion. But blocking the thousand other wells located in deep water will drive up the bill due to the complexity and difficulty of the underwater process.
“It becomes much more expensive to plug wells when they are farther from the coast and deeper,” says study co-author Gregory Upton of the University of Louisiana.
“It would be better to focus on those in shallow and coastal waters,” he concludes.
The researchers point out that the vast majority of wells that have not yet been plugged in federal waters are operated by one of the industry giants (Chevron, Shell, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, BP, Total Energy and Eni), and therefore these companies have the capacity to pay for their filling.
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