Costs for capping wells11 Jan 2024 17:52
New Study Reveals Key Factors for Estimating Costs to Plug Abandoned Oil and Gas Wells
In their analysis of the 19,500 wells, the researchers at Resources for the Future (RFF) found that:
"The median cost of plugging a well without restoring the surface is about $20,000.
Plugging and reclaiming the surface around the well—which may be done for aesthetic, environmental, or job creation reasons—increases the median cost to $76,000.
Each additional 1,000 feet of well depth increases costs by 20 percent.
Costs of plugging wells goes up with the age of the well itself—Compared with wells that were more than 60 years old when decommissioned, wells aged 40 to 60 years old were 9 percent less expensive, and wells aged from 0 to 40 were roughly 20 percent less expensive to plug.
Natural gas wells are 9 percent more expensive than oil wells to plug.
Upon further analysis of almost 4,000 contracts, it appears that contracting plugging efforts in bulk pays off—each additional well per contract reduces decommissioning costs by 3 percent per well.
The paper focuses on orphaned oil and gas wells in Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Texas. These states were chosen because they differ in terms of geology, history, and regulatory structure, which helps ensure that the data is representative of more than just one region. Notably, there are significant differences in decommissioning costs across states"
So, in a significant dataset of 19,500 wells spread across many states the average plugging cost was $20,000 per well without land reclamation etc. This supports the DEC numbers. The research is from a non-profit, independent organisation which focuses on the environment i.e not oil industry shills
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