California is home to an estimated 180,000 idle oil and gas wells, some of which may be emitting methane and other hazardous gasses.
"The scale of the problem is huge," said Dr. Derek Manheim, who is a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo researcher studying the issue. A Cal Poly team conducted a three year research project on emissions and just received a million dollar state grant to expand its efforts into studying oil and gas well related greenhouse gas emissions.
"We've been working with the California Air Resources Board, and also the Department of Conservation trying to understand methane and volatile organic carbon emissions from these plugged and abandoned wells," said Manheim.
Manheim says the fact is we don’t know how many orphaned and abandoned wells exist in the state. He says the studies are intended to help us learn more about the threats emissions from old wells can pose. They completed a three year project in 2023.
"We've looked at 99 different volatile organic compounds from about 60 wells in California," said the Cal Poly Assistant Professor. "Most of that research was focused in the southern San Joaquin Valley, looking into both large and small operators. We have a pretty good preliminary baseline understanding of some of the main operational factors that kind of increased emissions. Also, we observed a lot of uptick of methane and other organic compounds from the atmosphere into the soils."
The researcher says they’ve received assistance from the oil industry, which wants to learn more about issues from capped wells. "We're located in pretty close proximity to one of the largest oil and gas producing regions in California, the San Joaquin Valley. So, we have a lot of good access. We've worked with Chevron, and other bigger companies...there's a lot of vested interest with both academia, and the industry."
Manheim says they’ve discovered some existing air pollution monitoring technology provides useful tools for the researchers. It’s some of what’s being used to monitor methane, and other gas emissions from landfills.
The Cal Poly team received a million dollar grant from the State Department of Conservation for a new three year study. It will allow expansion of the scope of the research statewide, and double the number of wells being monitored.
The research team is once again planning to use students to help with the project, involving everything from drones which can measure methane to portable gas sniffers.
Manheim says there are a lot of questions which need to be answered, ranging from how many of these orphaned wells exist, to the part the Cal Poly team is focused on: What kids of environmental threats do they pose.
