OILMONT, Mont. (AP) – Curtis Shuck remembers a wave of emotions a few years ago when he stumbled upon his first “orphan well” while walking through a field in the Kevin-Sunburst oilfield.
Shuck, who was no stranger to the oilfields, said he was there that day to discuss grain with a farmer when they came across a well that had been abandoned.
“I had no idea it was even a thing,” he said, noting that he had over 30 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. “I just thought it was everyone’s dirty little secret.”
He remembers feeling astonished, embarrassed and dismayed all at the same time. Shuck said he couldn’t get the image out of his mind and felt it was incumbent on him to do something about it. Shuck said he learned it was a huge problem, not only in Montana but in other parts of the country as well.
He started the Well Done Foundation, a nonprofit group that covers wells across the country. He said the organization “is making an impact in Montana and across the United States, one well at a time.”
“Every well is a victory and a milestone,” he told the Independent Record newspaper in Helena.
Speaking with this Toole County farmer in 2019, he learned that the farmer owns the surface rights, but not the mining rights. He said the farmer told him mining rights were stronger and oil companies could come in and do whatever they wanted, letting him “keep the bag.”
He said abandoned wells are forcing farmers to dodge the piles of oilfield waste left behind that have become wards of the state.
So far, Well Done has plugged 14 holes, contracting oil rigs and others to get the job done. The first well was plugged on April 22 – Earth Day – in 2020.
Shuck said he learned about the impact of sinks on climate change, especially in terms of methane gas, which he says is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
“Quickly, those numbers add up in terms of impact,” he said.
Shuck, 59, said the Well Done Foundation was starting projects in Pennsylvania and organized in Ohio, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and California.
“What he did was very helpful to us,” said Jim Halvorson, administrator of the Montana Board of Oil and Gas Conservation, which he said already had an orphan well plugging program.
Halvorson estimates that there are around 200 orphan wells in Montana, noting that the problem is not as big here as in some eastern states.
Alan Olson, executive director of the Montana Petroleum Association, said the organization always appreciates people who plug orphan wells. Olson, like Halvorson, said the state has had such a program for 40 years funded by a resource compensation trust fund and that the association supports those efforts.
“If Mr. Shuck wants to come and plug in a few on his own, we don’t have a problem,” he said.
According to the Well Done Foundation website, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that there are 2.5 million unclogged abandoned wells in the United States. This includes 31 states, emitting 7.2 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per year. They say that equates to 798 million gallons of gasoline used, 1.54 million passenger vehicles for a year, or 7.85 billion pounds of coal burned.
Well Done says on its website that plugging a dozen wells removes the carbon dioxide equivalent of 108,740 passenger cars over 10 years, 56.2 million gallons of gas burned, or 99 energy consumption. 000 households for a year.
It costs about $ 30,000 to plug a well. Shuck said the company is partnering with people and businesses such as oil companies to fund the project.
“Some say it’s not necessarily our responsibility, but it’s nice to see that some companies have a level of social responsibility,” Shuck said.
Well Done is 100% backed by donations and partnerships, Shuck said.
One person who donated was Fuyuki Fujiawara, a Tokyo-based fund manager and investor. He was the first international full well sponsor to fund the plugging of an orphan well, which ended Oct. 15 in Toole County.
And in terms of support from surface well owners?
“Surface owners tend to be our biggest cheerleaders,” Shuck said.
He said Well Done has around 10 employees across the country working in satellite offices, including State College, home of Penn State University in Pennsylvania.
He said Well Done also had a relationship, like internships, with Montana Tech.
The company also uses a lot of subcontractors and teams.
There is a five-step process that includes monitoring and analyzing orphan well-being. A link is displayed and the well is passed from the state. A budget is prepared and a campaign begins to raise funds for the plugging and surface restoration of the well.
“Once we hit the adopt button, there are no returns or repeats,” Shuck said.
A gel is pumped into the hole and then covered with concrete. Shuck said the hemp industry is incorporating the use of hemp into the design of the cement, and hemp from Montana will first be used in a well in Pennsylvania. On this recent Thursday in Toole County, the frost was pumped hundreds of feet below the surface. Cement is poured over it.
After the wells are plugged, a monitoring platform with green, orange and white stripes is placed nearby, where high-tech gadgets and scientific equipment collect data on methane gas emissions.
The units are affectionately referred to as “Dorothy”, a nod to the hurricane monitoring station from the movie “Twister”.
“What I love about it is that it works,” Shuck said of the cap. “It’s not nuclear physics, it’s like plumbing.”
Shuck talks about Well Done as he stands in a farmer’s field on a Thursday morning northeast of Shelby, in an area just off the Oilmont Freeway. Directions to his work trailer are easy – just walk down the road for a few miles until you come to some trees on the right side of the freeway.
He is standing in a field near an abandoned well which he calls “Old Faithful” because, as he puts it, “he is still doing his job.”
Shuck also meets a film crew working for a German media company. The Well Done website has a long list of media reports from sources including the Washington Post, BBC, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Recycling Today and, more locally, Yellowstone Public Radio and Shelby Promoter.
“It’s something that got a lot of traction,” Shuck said, between phone calls. “It’s very humiliating.”
He told the Washington Post that he was not receiving a salary and the newspaper reported that he described himself as “a volunteer with a keen habit.”
Shuck’s son, Keaton, is the project manager at the Toole County site.
“I love it,” he says of his job, adding that he’s new to the game.
Shuck, who clicks on the names of several states he will be visiting over the next few weeks, said the work continues.
“The point is not to point fingers and blame,” he said. “We’re an action-based organization and, like Montana, we thought it was important to go out and roll up our sleeves and do something, not just think about it. “
He says he will be visiting Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York in a few days. And Well Done is preparing to plug its first well in Louisiana.
“It’s super exciting, but it all started in Montana,” Shuck said.
“There is no quick fix for climate change,” he said. “But every little bit counts. Maybe that will inspire others to do the same.
“We are very fortunate to be the ones leading the charge.”
