Misleading Picture and Related Article 32,000 Abandoned Wells

Professional Mariner Forum
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While the article may be materially correct, to the unknowledgeable it is misleading. The photograph showing an abandoned platform gives the impression that there are 32,000 platforms abandoned. To the uninformed, a platform likely represents (1) one well. The author could have very easily pointed that out many wells are drilled from each platform. I think we all can agree that abandoned platforms are an eyesore and I am not defending in any way the petroleum industry. But, gCaptain has a responsibility to its readers, whoever they may be, to present unbiased articles.
Regards,
Larry Cochran

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For reference:

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A google image search for “abandoned wells” comes up with similar photos so doesn’t seem like it was meant to be deliberately deceptive.

Here’s a good article about a similar situation in the Alberta oil fields:

The problem is that oil companies are not forced to save for the clean-up expense, and accounting tricks allow them to make the clean-up liability look negligible in their corporate accounts.1 It’s an open secret (implicitly endorsed by the Alberta government) that defunct wells will never be cleaned up. If they were, the oil industry would go bankrupt.

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The onshore wells are a bigger problem with many leaking methane.
Lets build more nuclear plants and allow the operators to walk away when they are end of life. not but they did with oil n gas

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Maybe to just “plug and abandon” old depleted oil wells are a bad idea for another reason:

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I didn’t read the last two ‘’‘movies’’ but I worked in the fields in Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and there are a LOT of wells there and a huge number of them are pumped infrequently for years.
What they do is measure the well (depth of oil vs depth of hole) based on its’ past history and if it looks like it has accumulated enough oil over time they’ll haul a pumper in there and start pumping it till the oil level in there drops to the limit for next time. Thusly, many wells continue to produce for years into the future.
I don’t know anything about off shore but perhaps in some cases it could be the same?

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How about the gas buildup and leakage, what do they do with that?

Millions of wells on the land?

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power about, none are capped probably for that reason but i never noticed much of a smell coming out of them. if you dopped a rock down it’d go for ever !!!

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You know methane is odorless. So I assume you’re joking.

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i was about 20 then, knew less than i do now !!!

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