There have been commercial oil and gas wells across the United States for 170 years. Researchers estimate that there are between two and three million wells that have been abandoned. There are hundreds of thousands of them, across 27 states, that are “orphaned,” meaning that they are uncapped, unproductive, and nobody is responsible to manage their leakage or pollution.
Many are undocumented orphaned wells – UOWs – that are not listed in formal records and are basically out of sight and out of mind. Besides having nobody responsible for them, nobody even knows where they are. But they are potential sources of oil and chemical leaks into nearby water sources and can send toxic substances like benzene and hydrogen sulfide into the air.
Researchers are using modern tools like drones, laser imaging, and advanced sensors to try to locate UOWs. But these wells are scattered over an area of more than three million square miles.
To better predict where to look for undocumented wells, researchers are combining historical topographic maps with artificial intelligence. The US Geological Survey has scanned 190,000 topographic maps made between 1884 and 2006. AI is being used to find the symbols for oil and gas wells on the maps. People can recognize these symbols easily, but there are just too many maps to look at. The problem is equivalent to finding a needle in a haystack; there is just an awful lot of hay to look through.
Abandoned wells are a big problem and it will take lots of modern technology to try to solve it.
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AI Helps Researchers Dig Through Old Maps to Find Lost Oil and Gas Wells
Photo, posted August 16, 2022, courtesy of Larry Syverson via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio
