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More than 3,200 lubricator and pedal wells categorised as astir untruth forsaken beneath the Gulf of Mexico, with no filler plugging to support preclude leaks that could threaten the aforementioned humour fouled by terminal year's BP spill, The Associated Press has learned.

These wells probable pose an modify greater environmental danger than the 27,000 wells in the Gulf that hit been obstructed and categorised officially as "permanently abandoned" or "temporarily abandoned." Those stamped wells were prototypal tallied and reported as a major unseaworthy danger in an investigative inform by the AP in July.

The unplugged wells haven't been used for at small fivesome years, and there are no plans to change creation on them, according to the federal government. Operators hit not been required to block the wells because their leases hit not expired.

As a result, there is lowercase to preclude powerful leaks from pushing to the surface. Even deficient wells crapper repressurize from impact on nearby wells or shifts in lubricator or pedal layers beneath the surface, lubricator engineers say. But no digit is watching to attain trusty that doesn't happen.

The addition of the clean but officially astir wells, as registered in a itemize provided to the AP by federal officials low the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, effectuation at small three-fifths of the 50,000 wells ever drilled in the Gulf hit been left behindhand with no turn monitoring for leaks.

The 27,000 decommissioned wells were drilled mostly on federal leases that hit now expired. Government rules for terminated leases on the seafaring news order operators to block the wells or attain plans to reuse them within a year. In its example report, the AP registered how lubricator and pedal companies regularly flouted the rules regarding temporary abandonment, with whatever wells "temporarily abandoned" since the 1950s.

Rules for valid leases are different, and hit allowed operators to exclusive walk absent from indolent wells. Some of the roughly 3,200 unsealed wells contained in the stylish itemize were drilled 60 eld ago, and most are more than 10 eld old.

Federal regulators described indolent wells on astir leases as a "potential threat" to the surround in a Sept honor to operators announcing a newborn program, dubbed "Idle Iron," to block them within three years. The honor said the information would cover more than 3,000 indolent wells but didn't feature what category of wells would be included or whether the wells already contained at small whatever filler plugging.

The itemize of restricted wells covered by the Idle Iron move was provided to the AP by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, which regulates lubricator and pedal leases on federal lands on the seafaring floor.

BOEMRE refused to provide the itemize when the AP prototypal requested it in September. The authority said at the instance that it prototypal wanted to avow with pedal and lubricator companies that the wells were aright classified. The AP argued that the FOIA provides access to records as they subsist at the instance of the request, but the authority ease refused to release the material.

In eventually providing the itemize terminal month, BOEMRE said the wells had been "verified." But individual weeks later, a allegoric of the agency, Eileen Angelico, contacted the AP and said it had mistakenly free the example unverified list.

It is that edition — a organisation of wells as they were categorised in Sept without any challenges from the business — that the AP has analyzed and used as a foundation for this story. Angelico said the verified itemize wasn't yet ready, despite the earlier assurance that the free itemize had been patterned by operators.

The itemize cites the dweller Petroleum Institute number of 3,253 lubricator or pedal wells targeted by the move in September. Ninety-nine proportionality of them, or 3,212, were categorised as complete wells. Most were drilled for lawful production, but a few were exploratory.

Just 41 of the Idle Iron wells — 1 proportionality — were already categorised in Sept as "temporarily abandoned."

When wells are drilled, they are unsmooth with metal casing, which is then sheathed in filler to boost get up the borehole.

Whole segments of wells that are permanently forsaken are obstructed with additional lengths of filler — famous as plugs — to preclude any lubricator or pedal from pushing its artefact to the top. Then, the crowning of the frame is sheared off, and a container is settled over it.

When wells are temporarily abandoned, less filler plugs are placed, so it is easier to drill finished the plugs and uphold production, if desired.

The typical substantially in the Iron Idle information is finished exclusive with a wellhead, which is the crowning of the metal lining, and perhaps a figure titled a tree, a faucet-like chisel armored with valves to open and closed the flow of hydrocarbons during production.

Federal regulators hit acknowledged that modify whatever obstructed wells hit leaked in the past. And, as the AP unconcealed terminal summer, there is no turn monitoring of forsaken wells — obstructed or unplugged.

The lubricator and pedal business mostly views plugging on valid leases as an difficulty and prefers the immunity to uphold operations at any instance on such wells.

When BP's Deepwater Horizon substantially blew in the Gulf terminal April 20, it was existence temporarily forsaken to await after production. A poor filler plugging job has been identified as a honcho cause of the deadly discharge and spill.

Engineers feature the metal and filler covering exclusive forsaken wells, as substantially as the plugs, crapper fortuity downbound over instance and earmark leaking. Petroleum or corrosive brine, which is modify saltier than seafaring water, crapper revealing from low the seafaring floor, harming flora life.

The most hammy danger from the Idle Iron wells is a gusher consanguine to the BP spill, though belike on a small scale, specialists say.

Roger N. Anderson, an forcefulness geophysicist at Columbia University, said he worries most a harmful failure of the filler covering in the unplugged wells. "The digit thing we don't undergo rattling much most is how the filler module age. Highways exclusive terminal so long, and the filler starts to degrade," he said.

Another danger is that whatever of the clean Idle Iron wells haw be slowly leaking, symptom seafaring creatures that hit adapted to the uncolored lubricator seepage from the seafaring floor, but not to higher amounts. "Elevated habitual leaks from thousands of sources distribute widely crossways the Gulf crapper hit much more impact than azygos spills," said Doug Rader, an ecologist for the Environmental Defense Fund.

A ordinal danger is that hurricanes or another storms module ruin underwater structures and attain them leak.

David Pettit, grownup attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the lack of fault of clean wells makes him nervous.

"I hit no idea how badly they haw be leaking," he said, adding that federal regulators should move with checking whatever of the oldest wells.

Under the Idle Iron program, operators crapper opt to accolade the wells with a complete information of plugs and sheared-off substantially covering for permanent abandonment, or with less plugs for temporary abandonment.

As a ordinal choice, they haw administer restricted plugs strategically around the lubricator or pedal zones within the substantially — but staleness then accolade the substantially more thoroughly within two more years.

It's not country if companies would be required to fully accolade the Idle Iron wells that are already listed as temporarily abandoned.

Under the newborn rules, forthcoming wells that drop out of creation on astir leases also staleness be stamped within three years.

Gene Beck, a lubricator organise at Texas A&M University who used to impact in the lubricator industry, said whatever companies won't same the Idle Iron information "because it's feat to outlay a aggregation of money." It is not country how much, but companies module hit to pay at small $3 billion to permanently block wells on both astir and terminated federal leases, according to earlier BOEMRE estimates.

Apache Corp., which operates the most Idle Iron wells with 587 in its portfolio, foresees spending $317 meg to block and decommission its possess assets in the Gulf just this year.

Drew Hunger, who manages Gulf decommissioning impact for Apache, said he views the timetable of the Idle Iron information as fairly ambitious, but he additional that it also appears to earmark for "the limitations on available contractor equipment and manpower."

He said business complaints most the information revolve around the paperwork and the restricted filler of BOEMRE's staffing to impact it.

Chevron U.S.A., the consort with the second-highest number of wells in the information at 528, did not move to a letter for comment. BP has 24 such wells and also did not respond.

Federal officials hit said lowercase most how the newborn information module be enforced. Neither the BOEMRE nor the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which monitors seafaring pollution, responded to repeated requests for interviews most the program.

___

The AP National Investigative Team crapper be reached at investigate(at)ap.org

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