{"id":65972,"date":"2020-03-13T21:13:41","date_gmt":"2020-03-14T03:13:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-launches-effort-to-plug-abandoned-wells-in-la-plata-county\/"},"modified":"2020-03-14T03:13:41","modified_gmt":"2020-03-14T03:13:41","slug":"colorado-launches-effort-to-plug-abandoned-wells-in-la-plata-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-launches-effort-to-plug-abandoned-wells-in-la-plata-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado launches effort to plug abandoned wells in La Plata County"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n

The state of Colorado this year will start a massive cleanup of oil and gas wells abandoned by their operators throughout La Plata County, which could end up costing taxpayers upward of $2 million when all is said and done.<\/p>\n

In 2018, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, the state\u2019s top regulator of oil and gas, was tasked with taking a serious look at the abandoned sites, known as orphan wells, and coming up with a statewide plan to fix the public health and safety hazard.<\/p>\n

A total of 275 orphan wells were analyzed in the state\u2019s study and assigned a priority ranking.<\/p>\n

La Plata County had the second most sites on the list, second only to Logan County, accounting for 74 of the sites, according to state records, with the vast majority ranked as a high or medium priority for cleanup.<\/p>\n

\"It
It takes about four days and an estimated $40,000 to plug one orphan well, regulators say. Records show about 60 wells need to be plugged in La Plata County.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Most
Most of the orphan wells in La Plata County are located on the Redmesa oilfield, a sprawling pi\u00f1on-juniper mesa southeast of Durango.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

As of last month, COGCC records show 64 abandoned sites remaining that require remediation, with a project this year planned to plug 10 wells, mostly in the western part of La Plata County.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the first big projects,\u201d said Dave Andrews, COGCC engineer manager.<\/p>\n

Redmesa oil field<\/div>\n

There\u2019s several ways wells become orphaned.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, the sites were drilled and abandoned before the COGCC was formed in the 1950s, so there wasn\u2019t any oversight and the company is long gone. Other times, an oil and gas operator goes into bankruptcy and disappears, leaving the state on the hook for cleanup costs.<\/p>\n

In La Plata County, the majority of wells on the cleanup list \u2013 about 50 \u2013 are connected with abandoned sites on the Redmesa oil field, located on a sprawling mesa near the Colorado-New Mexico border about 30 miles southwest of Durango.<\/p>\n

Most of the wells near Redmesa were drilled in the early 1980s. But the most recent conflict began in the mid-2000s<\/a>, when Red Mesa Holdings LLC took over a significant portion of the facilities in the field and quickly let the infrastructure fall into disrepair.<\/p>\n

\"In
In recent years, the state of Colorado has increased its budget from less than a half million to $5 million to address the hundreds of orphan wells across the state.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The COGCC ultimately ordered Red Mesa Holdings to pay $250,000 for cleanup costs, but the company instead declared bankruptcy. Another operator, Atom Petroleum LLC, stepped in to take over the field, but that company too failed to bring infrastructure up to safety standards.<\/p>\n

Atom never paid the full amount of its $240,000 fine by the state and left only its $60,000 bond to help with cleanup costs before disappearing from the region.<\/p>\n

State\u2019s cleanup underfunded<\/div>\n

When an oil and gas operator defaults, it\u2019s then up to the state to \u201cplug and abandon\u201d \u2013 the term for completely mitigating an orphan well \u2013 the sites if there is no other company to take over.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s orphan well cleanup program began in 1990 but for years was chronically underfunded as more abandoned sites demanded attention. In 2017, the program\u2019s budget was less than $500,000 and had no full-time staff, despite 800 wells throughout the state that needed cleanup.<\/p>\n

\"Drilling
Drilling pipe is used to drill down through the existing well hole so crews can pump cement into the orphan gas well sealing it southeast of Redmesa. The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has identified several orphan wells in the area that need plugging.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

That all changed in 2018, when then-Gov. John Hickenlooper dedicated about $5 million a year to the effort. The increase in funding has allowed the orphan-well program to hire more staff and put more resources into tackling the abandoned sites that pock Colorado\u2019s landscape.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were limited with a budget of less than a half million a year,\u201d said Andrews, who said the state had the money to plug and abandon only 10 wells or so annually. \u201cNow, our goal is 38 per year, statewide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Five days of work<\/div>\n

Recently, at an abandoned site tucked into the pi\u00f1on-juniper forests in southwest La Plata County, crews were at work plugging a well that is part of Red Mesa Holdings.<\/p>\n

A typical \u201cplug and abandon\u201d takes four or five days and about $40,000, though it\u2019s more expensive in this part of the state. And sometimes, it can take longer, especially on sites where there\u2019s little background information about where infrastructure may exist underground.<\/p>\n

\"The
The state of Colorado plans to plug about 10 wells in La Plata County this year and hopes to increase that amount annually as regulators address longstanding abandoned sites.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe might not have one record in our system,\u201d said Shannon Chollet, an orphan-well program engineer with the COGCC. \u201cSo it\u2019s a complete mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n

The goal, Chollet said, is to return conditions on the ground to their original state as much as possible.<\/p>\n

Every well holds its own complications and challenges, Chollet said. Some might have surface water, while others may have flow lines buried underneath.<\/p>\n

But when all is said and done, the COGCC says plugged wells should remain safe for an estimated 10,000 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we leave here, no one should have to come back and plug this well again,\u201d Chollet said.<\/p>\n

The COGCC hopes to hit 10 more wells in the Redmesa field this summer, and Andrews said the state would like to increase that annual amount going forward. La Plata County\u2019s sites were ranked so high, he said, because there are homes in the area and the abandoned sites pose a safety risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like any other industrial piece of equipment, if sitting there not maintained or used for a long period of time, it tends to deteriorate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"According
According to a state report, La Plata County has the second most orphan wells in the state that require cleanup.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Colorado
Colorado regulators hope to enact measures that would require oil and gas companies to put money into a fund that would go toward mitigation efforts in an attempt to avoid future orphan wells.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Financial assurances<\/div>\n

As part Senate Bill 181, a bill that shifts the focus of COGCC from fostering energy development to prioritizing the protection of public health, safety and the environment, regulators are now tasked with coming up with a way to have financial assurances to avoid the issue of orphan wells.<\/p>\n

La Plata County Commissioner Gwen Lachelt, who has worked on oil and gas issues for years, said this measure in SB 181 will lessen the burden of future cleanup costs, especially as operators continue to leave the county for more profitable oil-producing regions, giving rise to the potential of orphan wells becoming an even larger issue.<\/p>\n

In recent years, major producing companies \u2013 BP America Production Co., ConocoPhillips and Williams Partners \u2013 have sold their stakes in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cNatural gas prices have been depressed for over a decade,\u201d Lachelt said. \u201cThe fees will afford local governments the wherewithal to address orphaned and abandoned wells in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

a strong budget, state regulator can now tackle orphaned gas sites<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-65972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65972"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=65972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}