The Obama administration said Wednesday that it will require oil and gas companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico to plug nearly 3,500 nonproducing wells and dismantle about 650 production platforms that are no longer used.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said a formal notice to leaseholders should make energy production in the gulf safer and prevent potentially catastrophic leaks at wells that in some cases have been abandoned for decades.
Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, and other officials said the initiative was under consideration long before the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig.
More than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells lie beneath the Gulf of Mexico, and more than 1,200 oil rigs and platforms sit idle. An Associated Press investigation showed that many of the wells have been ignored for decades, with no one checking for leaks.
The order issued Wednesday requires operators to plug wells that been inactive for the past five years. Production platforms and pipelines must be decommissioned if they are not being used for exploration or production, even under an active lease.
Historically, oil and gas producers have asserted that certain idle platforms, wells and pipelines were still valuable because they might one day be used to support other active wells nearby. Oil companies have been reluctant to plug the wells and remove the infrastructure until the associated lease expired — sometimes years after the structures were out of use.
“As infrastructure continues to age, the risk of damage increases. That risk increases substantially during storm season,” said Brom wich, adding the new order was expected to significantly reduce such hazards.
Meanwhile, the blown-out well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico could be pronounced dead in a matter of days.
Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government’s point man for the oil spill, said Wednesday that the relief well BP has been drilling all summer long should intersect the ruptured well within 24 hours. He said mud and cement will then be pumped in, sealing the hole once and for all by Sunday.
