Not-so-marginal wells and the need for strong EPA regulations

A small handful of really large business– just 93 in total, each owning over 1,000 wells– dominate ownership of the countrys marginal well websites, controlling almost half of the total.In all, over 75% of minimal well websites are owned by business with more than 100 active wells. Little operators with fewer than 10 operating websites control simply 4% of these wells nationwide.Recent reporting from Bloomberg highlighted the nations biggest owner of minimal wells– a business that owns even more wells than Exxon Mobil– and the risk of outsized emissions from its roughly 69,000 well sites.Ensuring these kinds of well-resourced firms arent provided a free pass to pollute is vital for securing the more than 9 million homeowners living within a half mile of active oil and gas wells across the nation. Not-so-marginal wells and the requirement for strong EPA guidelines Click To TweetOutsized emissions from minimal wellsWhile the nations marginal wells make up 80% of all active wells, they account for simply 6% of total oil and gas production– and clinical research has actually repeatedly found that these wells drive an outsized share of the industrys methane and local air pollution.These findings play out throughout several current peer-reviewed research studies focused on low-production well websites: For the smallest wells producing 0-1 barrels of oil equivalent per day and contributing simply 0.2% and 0.4% of oil and gas production, respectively, research study in the Appalachian Basin approximates that wellhead methane getting away from these websites accounts for 11% of the production-related methane emissions in EPAs Greenhouse Gas Inventory.The exact same research observed that lots of limited wells emit as much or more gas than they reported producing.