A study explores oil and gas well integrity in three states in the United States. Information about oil and gas well integrity in the United States is often sparse and varies in availability from state to state. As a result, little is known about the fraction of wells that have experienced leakage, despite the potential impacts on groundwater supply. Greg Lackey and colleagues compiled 474,621 well testing records from 105,031 oil and gas wells in Colorado, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania into a large publicly available well integrity dataset in the United States. The dataset focuses on records of sustained casing pressure (SCP) and/or casing vent flow (CVF), which imply a compromise of internal well integrity. However, the authors caution, additional well details and testing information are needed to determine whether the leaked fluids have affected groundwater. The authors found that 14.1% of tested wells across Pennsylvania exhibited SCP and/or CVF, and the corresponding percentage of tested wells in different oil-producing and gas-producing regions in Colorado and New Mexico varied between 0.3% and 26.5%. Characteristics deemed sufficient to potentially induce leakage into groundwater were identified in 3% of tested wells in Colorado and 0.1% of tested wells in New Mexico. According to the authors, the results show both the value of statewide well testing programs and the challenge of interpreting disparate well testing data.
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Article #20-13894:
"Public data from three US states provide new insights into well integrity," by Greg Lackey et al.
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