Plugging abandoned oil wells and stopping methane leaks [video]

youtube.com

75 points·nathanh4903··7 comments

And who pays for this? Is this ye olde privatize the profits and socialize the costs?

Speaking for CA: to drill a new well the company must post a bond that is returned when the company closes the well.

If they don't, the bond is used to close the well.

Problem: the cost of the bond is WAY lower than the actual cost of plugging the well. So companies abandon them, and there is seemingly no penalty.

So society pays for it.

> California’s oil wells cost an average of $68,000 to properly plug and clean up once they are done producing. However, the average bond currently available to cover those costs is only $1,000 per well.

From https://environmentamerica.org/california/resources/mapping-...

Us. Yes.

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-rising-cost-of-the-oi... ("Propublica: The Rising Cost of the Oil Industry’s Slow Death")

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39468361 ("HN: The Rising Cost of the Oil Industry’s Slow Death")

It’s hard to imagine this is the only way to achieve this. I have no background here, but there’s got to be a faster, cheaper way that then can be scaled across the 3M abandoned sites in the US. Next, do the rest of the world.

> I have no background here, but [...]

Indeed

Do you? You have knowledge that the problem is literally unsolvable any other way?

What was the point of this reply?

The tech startup world has been taking an outsiders look at problems in an attempt to solve them in a novel way for the past 30 years. Maybe this is not the web site or discussion forum for you if you want to disparage people for thinking outside the box.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com