On a sprawling ranch in Pecos County in late July, oil well control specialist Hawk Dunlap used a backhoe to uncover an abandoned or so-called zombie well...
PECOS COUNTY , Texas - On a sprawling ranch in Pecos County in late July, oil well control specialist Hawk Dunlap used a backhoe to uncover an abandoned or so-called zombie well that had sprung back to life despite being plugged just over a year earlier, hissing gas and bubbling toxic water into the dry Texas dirt.
He and his partner Sarah Stogner, an oil and gas lawyer who documents their work on social media, say they have now recorded over 100 leaking legacy or "orphan" wells with no responsible owner, which were listed in RRC records as properly plugged, including the one at the Briggs Ranch in Pecos County.
"It's about seeing that things are done right and not letting oil companies run over the citizens of Texas just because they produce oil and gas and pay some royalties," he told Reuters. Meanwhile, oil drillers working new wells in the Permian overlying Texas and New Mexico are accumulating around 24 million barrels daily of "produced water" – the salty mixture that comes up alongside oil and gas, according to Laura Capper with energy advisory EnergyMakers. Between 40-55% of this water is injected in local disposal wells, with much of the rest reused for oil operations, she said.
In 2022, Texas received a $25 million initial grant from the bipartisan infrastructure law's Orphaned Well Program to address the issue. It got another $80 million in January but with strings attached: use of the money requires the RRC to measure the amount of methane and other gases leaking from plugged wells before and after plugging.Ramon said the RRC has used up the first tranche of federal funds and begun to tap into the larger tranche, in addition to its state orphan well funds.
Less than one week after Dunlap dug up the previously plugged well on the property, a separate old leaking well less than 1,000 feet from her house and animal pens suddenly had an explosive blowout of produced water. Briggs' gas monitor showed high levels of toxic hydrogen sulfide.
Oil And Gas Hawk Dunlap Pecos County Disposal Wells Texas Orphan Wells Laura Briggs
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