Special Report: Millions of abandoned oil wells are leaking methane, a climate menace

[riversedge]

June 16, 20206:14 AM Updated 3 months ago


Special Report: Millions of abandoned oil wells are leaking methane, a climate menace

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-drilling-abandoned-specialreport/special-report-millions-of-abandoned-oil-wells-are-leaking-methane-a-climate-menace-idUSKBN23N1NL



By Nichola Groom

15 Min Read

SALYERSVILLE, Kentucky (Reuters) - (This June 16 story corrects comparison in paragraph eight of climate damage from methane leaks to that from U.S. oil consumption. The leaks cause climate damage roughly equivalent to typical U.S. oil consumption in one day, not two days.)



In May 2012, Hanson and Michael Rowe noticed an overpowering smell, like rotten eggs, seeping from an abandoned gas well on their land in Kentucky. The fumes made the retired couple feel nauseous, dizzy, and short of breath.

Regulators responding to the leak couldn’t find an owner to fix it. J.D. Carty Resources LLC had drilled the well near the Rowes’ home in 2006 - promising the family a 12.5% royalty and free natural gas, which they never got. But Carty went bust in 2008 and sold the site to a company that was later acquired by Blue Energy LLC. Lawyers for both companies deny any responsibility for the leak.

A year later, Kentucky’s Division of Oil and Gas declared the well an environmental emergency and hired Boots & Coots Inc - the Texas contractor that doused oil-well fires after the Gulf War - to plug it. During the 40-day operation, the Rowes retreated to a trailer on their property and lived with no running water to escape the gases and noise. Regulators determined the leak was a toxic blend of hydrogen sulfide, a common drilling byproduct, and the potent greenhouse gas methane.

“I wouldn’t go through this again for $1 million,” said Hanson Rowe, who with his wife is suing the energy companies for compensation.

The incident, while extreme, reflects a growing global problem: More than a century of oil and gas drilling has left behind millions of abandoned wells, many of which are leaching pollutants into the air and water. And drilling companies are likely to abandon many more wells due to bankruptcies, as oil prices struggle to recover from historic lows after the coronavirus pandemic crushed global fuel demand, according to bankruptcy lawyers, industry analysts and state regulators.....................

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FILE PHOTO: Hanson Rowe, a landowner who blames a leaky gas well on his property for health problems, smells for the odor of gas emanating from an abandoned well on his property in Salyersville, Kentucky, U.S., February 28, 2020. REUTERS/Bryan Woolston

[Igel]

1. Converting CH4 to CO2 equivalents is fishy.

Is it converting kg carbon as CH4 to the equivalent as CO2? or looking at the effect--because methane has a stronger greenhouse gas effect?


Either way it's off because methane is both short-term worse as a greenhouse gas and only longer-term like CO2, since it's oxidized in a few years to "mere" CO2.

However, it's also independently soluble in water, and there's no competition with CO2 in this regard (where, of course, it can be metabolized by animals or used by cyanobacteria; the expression of a biological concept again making me gag).