New Mexico Wild calls for audit of inactive wells

The New Mexico Wild Partnership, a team that promotes for the preservation of wild land, provided a letter on March 17 that gets in touch with the Bureau of Land Monitoring to carry out an official audit of non-active wells on government land.

“What we’re seeking with the audit is for BLM to really do a complete evaluation of the number of (of) what we call orphaned or deserted wells actually do feed on BLM lands in New Mexico,” NM Wild team lawyer Logan Glasenapp claimed.

Glasenapp claimed the team created the letter requesting the audit today since the acting state supervisor for the Bureau of Land Monitoring, Melanie Barnes, has a history in biology instead of a history in the nonrenewable fuel source market, as previous supervisors have actually had. They are really hoping Barnes will certainly hence be a lot more conscious of viewpoints that don’t consist of enhancing revenues in the nonrenewable fuel source market.

There more than 110,000 oil wells in New Mexico, according to the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and also Mineral sources. The New Mexico Oil Preservation Department determined 6,000 wells that have actually not created oil or gas in over a year. Of those, 2,600 get on government lands in the state.

A deserted oil well, or an oil well that is no more creating and also has actually not been effectively shut, positions risks to the surrounding atmosphere, according to Gary Weissmann, a scientist in the planet and also global scientific researches division at the College of New Mexico that additionally worked with deserted wells in Montana. 

“The wells — when they’re finished — they have a steel casing that decreases, that seal the aquifers and also whatever else right to where the manufacturing area is. Therefore that steel covering wears away in time, particularly if there’s some responsive gasses in the oil perspective, which prevails … The trouble is, when those (are) wore away, after that you can obtain liquids (such as oil) from the tank increasing right into the aquifers,” Weissmann claimed.

A big component of why NM Wild is requesting the audit is as a result of just how the huge oil empires are monetarily taking advantage of not needing to effectively shut their wells, despite the fact that not remediating the land around non-active wells legitimately violates their lease, according to Glasenapp.

“One of the things that they agreed to (when leasing the land) is that, when that well is no longer producing, they will plug and remediate the land. So the goal (with remediating) is basically (to) make it look like there was never a well pad there … Any company that has not done the work, is saving that much money from not doing the work and continuing to make money by being an active purchaser of leases that are producing oil and gas,”  Glassenapp said.

If an operator or a lessee violates their lease by abandoning an inactive well on federal land, BLM has the authority to revoke their ability to enter future leases, according to Glasenapp and NM Wild. The effects of revoking a company’s ability to enter another lease would have a substantial effect on the economy as it stands, according to Janie Chermak, the chair of the UNM economics department.

“You know, hate or love fossil fuels, it’s a pretty big part of the economy right now, and it would have drastic ramifications to simply walk away. That is not to say that (any) company shouldn’t have to abide by the rules,” Chermak said.

Chermak said it’s in the best interest of BLM to practice good environmental stewardship. Still, leaving inactive wells unclosed is a short-term money-saving tactic, as closing wells is a costly process and it leaves the door open to reopen a well.

“Well, if the well could come back on the line and produce, and the state gets a tremendous amount of tax revenues from oil and gas, then that would be potentially possibly a good thing,” Chermak said.

Glasenapp said BLM likely hasn’t had the resources or people to do an audit. The state is currently working toward receiving funding for closing orphaned wells on federal land from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act but even this will likely not be enough money to close every well, according to New Mexico Political Report.

BLM did not respond to a request for comment as of the publication of this article.

Madeline Pukite is a Beat Reporter at the Daily Lobo. They can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @maddogpukite