TY - JOUR
T1 - Effective permeabilities of abandoned oil and gas wells
T2 - Analysis of data from Pennsylvania
AU - Kang, Mary
AU - Baik, Ejeong
AU - Miller, Alana R.
AU - Bandilla, Karl W.
AU - Celia, Michael Anthony
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2015/4/7
Y1 - 2015/4/7
N2 - Abandoned oil and gas (AOG) wells can provide pathways for subsurface fluid migration, which can lead to groundwater contamination and gas emissions to the atmosphere. Little is known about the millions of AOG wells in the U.S. and abroad. Recently, we acquired data on methane emissions from 42 plugged and unplugged AOG wells in five different counties across western Pennsylvania. We used historical documents to estimate well depths and used these depths with the emissions data to estimate the wells' effective permeabilities, which capture the combined effects of all leakage pathways within and around the wellbores. We find effective permeabilities to range from 10-6 to 102 millidarcies, which are within the range of previous estimates. The effective permeability data presented here provide perspective on older AOG wells and are valuable when considering the leakage potential of AOG wells in a wide range of applications, including geologic storage of carbon dioxide, natural gas storage, and oil and gas development.
AB - Abandoned oil and gas (AOG) wells can provide pathways for subsurface fluid migration, which can lead to groundwater contamination and gas emissions to the atmosphere. Little is known about the millions of AOG wells in the U.S. and abroad. Recently, we acquired data on methane emissions from 42 plugged and unplugged AOG wells in five different counties across western Pennsylvania. We used historical documents to estimate well depths and used these depths with the emissions data to estimate the wells' effective permeabilities, which capture the combined effects of all leakage pathways within and around the wellbores. We find effective permeabilities to range from 10-6 to 102 millidarcies, which are within the range of previous estimates. The effective permeability data presented here provide perspective on older AOG wells and are valuable when considering the leakage potential of AOG wells in a wide range of applications, including geologic storage of carbon dioxide, natural gas storage, and oil and gas development.
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U2 - 10.1021/acs.est.5b00132
DO - 10.1021/acs.est.5b00132
M3 - Article
C2 - 25768798
AN - SCOPUS:84926513166
SN - 0013-936X
VL - 49
SP - 4757
EP - 4764
JO - Environmental Science and Technology
JF - Environmental Science and Technology
IS - 7
ER -