Latest news with #RailroadCommission
Bloomberg
22-05-2025
- Science
- Bloomberg
The Biggest US Oil Field Is at Risk of Poisonous Water Leaks, Texas Warns
Texas regulators are warning that wastewater from fracking in the biggest US oil basin is causing a 'widespread' increase in underground pressure — a development that risks hindering crude output and harming the environment. Shale oil wells in the Permian Basin generate millions of gallons of chemical-laced water, which drillers then pump back into the earth. Landowners and activists have said for years that this process causes toxic leaks. Now the state's powerful oil and gas regulator, the Railroad Commission of Texas, is acknowledging the scale of the problem and imposing restrictions that could increase crude production costs.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Environmental challenges in the E&P and midstream sectors
May 21—Join law firm Troutman Pepper Locke for an in-depth Continuing Legal Education (CLE) presentation focused on pressing environmental issues facing the E&P and midstream sectors. This timely program will address the recent changes in Railroad Commission rules governing waste and pit permitting and will also provide insights into steps the industry should take to adapt to these new regulations. Additionally, they will explore ongoing air quality issues and the implications of the new EPA administration's policies on the oil and gas industry. The event is scheduled from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. June 18 at Midland Country Club, One Wildcatter Way, Midland. Troutman Pepper Locke's expert panel will provide a comprehensive overview of the regulatory landscape, discuss compliance strategies, and offer practical advice for navigating these challenges. This presentation is essential for legal professionals, environmental consultants, and industry stakeholders who need to stay informed about the latest developments in environmental regulations affecting the E&P and midstream sectors, event information said. AGENDA 3 p.m. — 3:10 p.m. — Welcome and Introduction — Overview of the program and objectives 3:10 p.m. — 3:30 p.m. — New Waste and Pit Permitting Rules by the Railroad Commission — Detailed analysis of the new permitting rules — Implications for oilfield operations — Compliance strategies and best practices 3:30 p.m. — 3:50 p.m. — Ongoing Air Quality Issues in the E&P and Midstream Sectors — Overview of current air quality challenges — Regulatory requirements and enforcement trends — Mitigation strategies and technological solutions 4:10 p.m. — 4:30 p.m. — Navigating the New EPA Administration — Key policy changes and regulatory priorities — Impact on the oil and gas industry — Strategies for compliance and advocacy 4:30 p.m. — 5 p.m. — Panel Discussion — Interactive discussion on the topics covered — Experts in the field share hands on experience and valuable insights 5 p.m. — 6 p.m. — Happy Hour — Networking opportunity with speakers and attendees — Light snacks and beverages provided
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Texas has thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells. Who is responsible for cleaning them up?
LULING — Just six minutes from 5,700-person town's historic city center, where an old oil museum still nods to the boom days, the ground groans as oil workers pull steel tubing — each piece is longer than a bus — out of a well drilled in 1983 that stopped pumping profits last year. Rain pours on this quiet Texas field, but the crew doesn't stop their steady pace. The job has become all too familiar. They're sealing one of thousands of unplugged orphaned oil and gas wells scattered across the state — abandoned holes left behind by companies that went bankrupt or just walked away. The last company to own this particular well was Geomeg Energy Operating Co., an Aransas Pass-based oil and gas company. This March project was a snapshot of what plugging a well looks like: part routine, part roulette. Sometimes workers find corroded cement casings, pressurized gas, or unexpected debris that can turn a cleanup into a days- or weeks-long job. 'Even the simplest well can take time,' said Nicholas Harrel, a state managed plugger with the Texas Railroad Commission. From the air, the wells look like pinpricks across the Texas landscape. But on the ground, they can erupt like geysers, leak methane, and threaten water supplies with toxic chemicals like hydrogen sulfide, benzene and arsenic. Abandoned oil wells are piling up across Texas, posing a growing environmental threat and saddling taxpayers with cleanup costs that have already reached tens of millions of dollars. In West Texas, at least eight orphaned wells have blown out since late 2024, spewing brine, a salty liquid laden with chemicals from drilling, and toxic gas. One leaked for more than two months before it could be capped. Another has created a 200-foot-wide sinkhole. 'We have more orphan wells coming on than we are plugging,' Railroad Commission Chair Christi Craddick said. 'We've exceeded our plugging numbers every year, but we still have more orphan wells that keep coming.' Who's responsible for cleaning up these wells, and what happens if Texas falls behind? Here's what to know. Orphan wells are oil, gas, or injection wells with no clear owner — either because the company went bankrupt or disappeared. These wells have been inactive for at least 12 months, meaning the wells do not produce oil or natural gas. Some of them are unplugged. Texas has nearly 8,900 orphan wells, according to the Railroad Commission's most recent list. Many are concentrated in oil-rich areas like the Permian Basin, including Reeves, Crockett, and Pecos counties. Pecos has more than 600 of them — the most of any county. Frio County, southwest of San Antonio, follows with close to 500 orphan wells. Many were plugged with inappropriate materials or using practices that are now obsolete. Older wells — especially those drilled before the 1950s — are more likely to have been abandoned and documentation on who last owned a well can be hard to find. The Railroad Commission of Texas, the state's oil and gas regulator, is responsible for ensuring that operators plug wells properly. Once a well stops producing oil or gas, operators are supposed to plug their own wells within 12 months. But when they don't — in some cases because they went bankrupt — the responsibility can shift to the state. The agency then evaluates how dangerous the orphan well is — to the environment and public safety — and places the well on a list to be plugged by contractors the agency hires. The Luling well was added to the Railroad Commission's list in October 2024 — one of five wells scheduled for plugging in the area. A big concern is air pollution, particularly methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere and accelerates climate change. These wells often leak methane, as well as hydrogen sulfide — a toxic colorless gas that smells like rotten eggs. This gas is especially dangerous: it can cause headaches, dizziness and at high concentrations can be fatal. For years, experts and ranchers have warned about the rising threat that unplugged wells pose to rivers, lakes and groundwater when they leak oil, gas, drilling fluids, and fracking wastewater, also known as 'produced water' a toxic mix of salt, hydrocarbons, arsenic, radium and other naturally occurring chemicals. Unplugged wells can create pathways for those chemicals to migrate into groundwater zones. A spokesperson with the Railroad Commission said they are unaware of any cases of groundwater contamination from orphan wells in Texas. The risks aren't just slow-moving — some are explosive. The common industry practice of injecting the massive amounts of fracking wastewater into deep wells can put pressure on underground geological formations. In some cases this pressure has led to increased earthquakes. In other cases, researchers have linked injections to well blowouts — sudden eruptions of water and gas that migrate underground until they hit an old well and burst from the earth. Blowouts can happen in any well. However, orphan wells and older, plugged wells are less likely to withstand the pressure and blow. Last year in the West Texas town of Toyah, a well erupted and spewed a foul-smelling, hydrogen-sulfide-laced plume that took 19 days to contain. Residents had headaches and wore masks to protect themselves. Harrel, the Railroad Commission well plugger, said that while the Luling well is a 'non-emergency' well, meaning it did not pose an immediate threat, it was still a concern because fluid was rising in the well and could eventually threaten groundwater. The Luling well is located in a field called Spiller known to have higher hydrogen sulfide levels. A 2024 study found that at least 20 wells in a Luling oilfield were releasing dangerous amounts of hydrogen sulfide gas. Residents report smells as far as Austin — 50 miles away. The Railroad Commission operates a State Managed Plugging Program, which is partly funded by the Oil and Gas Regulation and Cleanup Fund that receives bonds, enforcement penalties and permitting fees paid by operators. However, critics say those funds often fall short of actual cleanup costs. The agency has plugged more than 46,000 wells through the state plugging program since its inception in 1984. The commission said it has budgeted $22.75 million a year to plug 1,000 wells a year. For the past five fiscal years the agency has plugged an average of 1,352 wells per year. But that money doesn't go nearly far enough. The cost to plug just two emergency wells this fiscal year hit $9 million, nearly 40% of the state's entire annual plugging budget, according to Craddick, the agency chair. To keep up, the commission has increasingly relied on federal support. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, passed by the U.S. Congress in 2021, included a $4.7 billion nationwide injection to plug orphan wells on public and private lands. Through that law, Texas received $25 million in 2022 from the U.S. Department of the Interior and another $80 million in early 2024 to plug orphan wells. Combined with state funding, those dollars helped plug over 2,400 wells in 2023–24. However, federal funds are uncertain with changes in administrations. Meanwhile, plugging costs have also skyrocketed. Just a few years ago, Craddick said it cost around $15,000 to plug a well. Today, the average is closer to $57,000, and that number jumps dramatically for wells with high water flow or hazardous leaks. For example, a blowout near Odessa in late 2023 took more than two months and $2.5 million to contain and plug. The RRC warned last year that it can no longer sustain the growing cost and scale of the problem and requested an additional $100 million in emergency funding from lawmakers — about 44% of its entire two-year budget — just to keep up with the backlog, tackle urgent sites and cope with rising costs due to inflation. Lawmakers are considering this as part of the overall state budget. The costs of plugging a well vary by region and are based on how deep the wells are, according to Harell. While the Luling well's cost has not been finalized, according to the commission's cost calculation information, the well's cost will be about $24,000. The agency prioritizes wells that are actively leaking or pose immediate threats to the environment, groundwater and people. They might be releasing toxic gases like hydrogen sulfide, flooding land with contaminated water, or dangerously pressurized. These wells must be plugged right away, regardless of the cost, according to the commission. While Craddick noted at a hearing in February the state had 15 priority wells, a commission spokesperson said the number of priority wells fluctuates every day, with typically zero to five wells classified as emergency at any given time. 'If the fluid level in the well, the hydrocarbons and produce water in the well, gets up too close to that freshwater aquifer then it imposes a higher risk to contaminating that groundwater aquifer, so we wanna make sure that we get to those as wells first,' said Travis Baer, an oil and gas division district director at the Railroad Commission. The Luling well is categorized as a 2H priority well — still high risk but not a full-blown emergency. At the Luling field, red trucks and equipment surround a rusted pump jack, a mechanical device used to extract oil from an underground well to the surface. One of the trucks has two tanks that hold cement, another carries a cement mixer and a pressure pump. The process starts with a site assessment: Crews glance at hand-held devices hanging from their neck to test for dangerous gases like hydrogen sulfide and determine the wind direction so they can position themselves upwind. Once the site is secure, three workers wearing hard hats remove equipment inside the 2,000-foot-deep well — steel rods and tubing used to carry oil or gas to the surface. Almost two hours later, the workers were still pulling out tubing. Baer, the division district director, said these materials are often salvaged and sold to help offset plugging costs. Next, they assess the well's structural condition and measure how high fluids have risen inside. Once the well is fully evaluated, crews identify the underground zones that once produced oil or gas — known as perforations. A cast iron bridge plug (mechanical plug) is dropped down the hole, tightly sealed to provide a solid base and prevent fluids from leaking. 'This gives us a permanent bottom, it stops gas migration into our cement plug. So we know we're getting the best plug on bottom to seal off the perforations in the zone,' said Randy Niedorf, a well plugger with the company Bulldog Oil Well Service. Then, cement is pumped deep into the well. It flows to the bottom and rises up around the casing, sealing the wellbore and blocking any potential pathways for gas or liquid to migrate. Multiple cement plugs are installed along the well's depth, including near groundwater layers, to ensure complete isolation of oil and water zones. The final step is land restoration. Once the well is sealed, crews clean up the site. The Luling well was plugged in two days and all five wells in the area were plugged in about a week. First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill would stop Texas oil drillers from secretly burying toxic waste on private property
This story is published in partnership with Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. A bill in the Texas Legislature would require oil and gas drillers to notify landowners before burying toxic waste on their property. In addition, House Bill 4572 would strengthen other regulations for reserve pits, where oil and gas companies permanently bury waste next to drilling sites. The Texas House Energy Resources Committee heard testimony on the bill Monday. The bill builds on rulemaking the Railroad Commission of Texas, which regulates the oil and gas industry, completed late last year to update the state's oilfield waste regulations. State Rep. Penny Morales Shaw, who filed the bill, said it would introduce 'safeguards' for the state's groundwater and property owners. Landowners, advocates and an oilfield waste professional spoke in favor of the bill this week at the Capitol. A representative of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association spoke in opposition to the bill. 'Ranch owners can pour their life savings into their dream homestead, only later to find out that they bought a toxic waste reserve,' said Morales Shaw, a Democrat who represents parts of Houston and northern Harris County. 'This bill will afford landowners the opportunity to make an informed decision and to know when their interests are at risk.' The waste streams from the oil and gas industry have evolved since the widespread adoption of fracking. Oil-based muds and lubricants are now used to frack wells. Waste from wells can be laced with carcinogens including benzene and arsenic. The bill is now pending in the Energy Resources Committee and faces several hurdles to passage by the full House, if it is voted out of committee. A companion bill, Senate Bill 3017, was introduced by state Sen. José Menéndez, a Democrat from San Antonio. The Senate bill has not yet received a hearing. The clock is ticking to June 2, the last day of the Texas legislative session. Morales Shaw said she has spoken with all the committee members about the importance of the bill and the 'compelling testimony from lifelong industry members.' HB 4572 proposes new regulations for reserve pits, also referred to as Schedule A pits by the Railroad Commission. These earthen disposal pits are dug next to drilling rigs and are filled with oily waste, including mud and cuttings from the well. The pit is left open while the well is drilled. The waste is permanently buried underground once the well is complete. The bill would require the Railroad Commission to adopt standards for where reserve pits can be located and establish bonding and groundwater monitoring rules. The bill would also require standards for 'providing notice to and receiving permission from' a landowner to permanently bury waste. Morales Shaw told the committee the bill 'empowers landowners with the information and consent they deserve before toxic waste is buried beneath their property.' She referenced hundreds of violations of water protection rules the Railroad Commission has issued at waste pits. She also circulated photos of pollution caused by reserve pits and cows wading through drilling mud in a pit. State Rep. R.D. 'Bobby' Guerra, a Democrat from McAllen, called the images 'appalling.' 'I have a ranch,' he said. 'And I would be, excuse the expression, pissed off if I saw this kind of stuff going on on my place.' 'It's full of chemicals and lubricants and fluids and different emulsifiers and whatnot,' said state Rep. Jon Rosenthal, a Democrat from northern Harris County. 'It's poison, it smells bad and it's probably not good for cows.' Texas revamped its oilfield waste rules last year for the first time since the 1980s. The updated rule on reserve pits, which goes into effect July 1, will require companies to register the location of these pits for the first time. The updated rule only requires reserve pits to be lined when groundwater is within 50 feet of the bottom of the pit. There is no groundwater monitoring required. Hundreds of people submitted public comments about reserve pits during the rule-making, many of them asking the Railroad Commission to require landowner notification. However, the Railroad Commission did not include a landowner notification requirement in the final rule. At the time, Commissioner Jim Wright's spokesperson told Inside Climate News that it would be 'up to the Texas Legislature' to determine how and whether landowners should be notified of pits on their property. Wright's staff did not immediately comment on HB 4572. Morales Shaw said the existing rule does not go far enough. 'It has been 40 years since these waste pits have been permitted, and they are just now trying to figure out where they all are,' she said. 'The Railroad Commission's rules do not take meaningful and necessary steps to protect land, water supply, and livelihoods of landowners.' Public comments, both delivered in person and submitted in writing, largely supported the bill. Comal County landowner Mark Friesenhahn, who spent his career in the oil and gas industry, said over time reserve pits have become larger and more toxic chemicals and additives have been used in drilling muds. Friesenhahn, who spoke in favor of the bill, said existing practices are 'no longer practical given the toxicity and contamination concerns.' Laura Briggs, whose family ranch is in Pecos County in the Permian Basin, submitted written comments. She wrote that where waste pits have been dug on their property, 'the land is dead ground that caves in, and belches half-buried black plastic.' 'Landowner consent does not have to be burdensome to be effective,' she wrote. Commission Shift Action, the advocacy partner of the nonprofit organization Commission Shift, is also in support of the bill. Policy manager Julie Range said in an interview that expecting companies to be good stewards isn't enough. 'If we want best practices to be followed we should put them into our statutes,' she said. The sole public comment in opposition to the bill was registered by Michael Lozano on behalf of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association. Referencing the recent rulemaking at the Railroad Commission, he recommended lawmakers wait for the updated rule to be rolled out July 1 before passing legislation regarding waste pits. 'What we'd like to see is how these new environmental protections … interact and engage with this,' he said. Lozano said the cases pointed out during the hearing were examples of companies breaking the existing rules. 'Clearly there are problems that are happening,' he said. 'I don't think they're indicative of every circumstance of these pits being built.' The committee adjourned without voting on the bill. Disclosure: The Permian Basin Petroleum Association has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. Tickets are on sale now for the 15th annual Texas Tribune Festival, Texas' breakout ideas and politics event happening Nov. 13–15 in downtown Austin. Get tickets before May 1 and save big! TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
An abandoned West Texas oil well has created a 200-foot-wide sinkhole
This story is published in partnership with Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. UPTON COUNTY — A sinkhole around an old oil well is growing at an alarming rate on the Kelton Ranch in West Texas. Radford Grocery #17 was originally drilled as an oil well in the 1950s and later converted to a saltwater disposal well, according to state records. The well was plugged in 1977. The Kelton family, which owns the ranch, became alarmed recently as a sinkhole around the well rapidly grew. Water pooled in the bottom of the sinkhole. Then crude oil began migrating up from underground and formed a dark layer over the water. By mid-March, the sinkhole was roughly 200 feet in diameter and 40 feet deep, big enough to fit a four-story building. The smell of crude permeated the air. The family has stopped using a water well they fear could be contaminated. At some point the Radford Grocery well's plug failed, creating a connection between the water table and the oil reservoir underground. Because the well was previously plugged and has no active operator, there's no clear company the Keltons can turn to for help. The Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas drilling and plugging in Texas, has sent personnel to the site. But so far the Kelton family says there is no plan of action from the state agency. 'It can be fixed,' said Hawk Dunlap, a well integrity expert, as he looked over the sinkhole on Thursday. 'But it's not going to be cheap.' The sinkhole is the latest in a string of catastrophic incidents with old oil wells in the Permian Basin of West Texas, some plugged and others not. From sinkholes to blowouts to persistent leaks, more than a century of oil drilling in the region has left a daunting array of environmental hazards. These emergencies are in addition to a long backlog of wells to plug around the state. Acknowledging the growing challenge, the Railroad Commission requested an additional $100 million from the Legislature late last year. 'The number and cost of emergency wells has significantly increased over the last five years,' RRC deputy executive director Danny Sorrells wrote to legislators, in a letter first obtained by the Houston Chronicle. 'This matter has been reported to the RRC and referred to our Site Remediation,' said agency spokesperson Bryce Dubee. 'Commission staff are monitoring conditions within and around the sinkhole and considering options for addressing any concerns about groundwater quality.' The Kelton Ranch is a few miles outside McCamey in rural Upton County. McCamey is one of countless Texas towns formed in an oil boom. Wildcatter George McCamey struck oil in 1925 and soon several companies were drilling in the area. The town, named for him, grew quickly. The Rodman-Noel oilfield outside of McCamey, which includes the Kelton Ranch, was discovered in 1953, according to a nearby historical marker. The Kelton family purchased the property in 1963. The Keltons remember a family tradition of walking from the ranch house to drink the well water, which was always of good quality. The family still has cattle on the ranch. They do not own the mineral rights to the oil underground, which were severed from the property rights — a common situation in the state. Upton County is still one of the top oil-producing counties in Texas. But the area around McCamey is no longer a drilling hot spot. The Texas Legislature dubbed the town the 'Wind Energy Capital of Texas' in 2001, and wind turbines dot the nearby bluffs. Records indicate the Radford Grocery well 'caved in' after it was plugged in the 1970s. The Keltons say the sinkhole has grown significantly in the past 18 months. The well casing fell deeper into the hole. They think an underground formation washed out, but they do not know why. The hole in March was notably bigger than in photos from January 2024. 'It's suddenly much larger,' said Bill Kelton. 'And it's suddenly got oil.' The Railroad Commission has a long-standing state program to plug orphan wells, which do not have an active operator and were not plugged by their previous owner. The agency also received significant federal funding to plug orphan wells during the Biden administration. In addition to the Railroad Commission's recent funding request, a Republican-backed bill in the Texas Legislature this session would set a timeline for operators to plug inactive wells. However, wells such as the one on the Kelton Ranch pose an additional challenge. Because they were previously plugged and do not have an active operator, they are not considered orphan wells. The legal responsibility for cleanup when a plugged well fails is the subject of a lawsuit over another property 50 miles north as the crow flies. Antina Ranch landowner Ashley Watt is suing Chevron, saying the failures contaminated her property. Her attorney, Sarah Stogner, has taken to calling these situations across the Permian Basin 'zombie wells' that come back to life long after they are plugged, spewing salty water, oil or hazardous gases. The problem is mounting month by month. The Kelton Ranch is about 40 miles from a pair of blowouts that happened in Crane County in January 2022 and December 2023. Another blowout in October 2024 alarmed the Reeves County town of Toyah. Yet another leaking orphan well was identified last month in nearby Pecos County, on land that rancher Schuyler Wight leases for cattle grazing. The Railroad Commission has responded to several recent well emergencies. Plugging the well that caused the December 2023 blowout cost $2.5 million. The more recent blowout near Toyah was plugged by the pipeline company Kinder Morgan. Meanwhile, earthquakes linked to wastewater injection wells continue to rock the area. The Railroad Commission has restricted deep injection to reduce seismicity in the area. Southern Methodist University geophysicist Zhong Lu has published papers on the Permian Basin's sinkholes, earthquakes and subsidence — the gradual sinking of the ground. His research indicates that the combination of intensive oil and gas drilling and the limestone and salt formations of the Permian Basin have made the surface unstable. Landowners like the Keltons are seeking answers as the pockmarked surface of the Permian Basin sinks, shakes and crumbles. Disclosure: Southern Methodist University has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. We can't wait to welcome you to the 15th annual Texas Tribune Festival, Texas' breakout ideas and politics event happening Nov. 13–15 in downtown Austin. Step inside the conversations shaping the future of education, the economy, health care, energy, technology, public safety, culture, the arts and so much more. Hear from our CEO, Sonal Shah, on TribFest 2025. TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
