Ticking time bombs - What risk do abandoned oil and gas wells pose? | DW Documentary
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- Опубліковано 30 січ 2024
- The extraction of gas and oil poses a greater threat than previously thought. Leaks at disused drilling sites can trigger an environmental disaster at any time. If toxic substances escape, human lives are at risk.
Oil companies invest little in securing the former boreholes. Environmental activists are among the few on the lookout for this invisible danger: Of the 20 to 30 million former drilling sites worldwide, only a few are regularly and carefully monitored. From the North Sea to the Alsace region in France to the USA, abandoned extraction sites can be silently causing significant harm to both the environment and human health.
Take Bradford, USA: Here, several residents fell ill with mysterious symptoms including hair loss and nosebleeds. Eventually, medical doctor Jeffrey Nordella discovered they were all suffering from chronic benzene exposure caused by methane and crude oil. The substances had escaped over a long period of time from a disused borehole. Elsewhere, gas explosions from leaking production facilities cause enormous damage.
In many countries, oil and gas companies are legally obliged to seal abandoned wells immediately. However, the implementation and monitoring of these regulations is sporadic. Activists and whistleblowers are constantly trying to draw attention to this abuse.
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These residual clean up costs should be included in the lifetime cost of producing oil and natural gas to give a complete cost for comparison to the cost of, say, solar or nuclear
No, it is important to continue to give unfair advantages to dirty energy
@@SigFigNewton we desperately need a giant jump in an everlasting energy source.... Until fusion gets perfected all of the s*** is a waste of time to debate over, it's all terrible for our environment our planet
@@SigFigNewton one last bit when the Europeans came over here and met the native Americans we should have respected their way of life and learned how to live off of this land not pillage it
@@freemansaquatics5326 if you're wating for fusion then give up. it takes more energy than it produces by a scale that is mostly a secret and after decades has produced nothing. Fusion for energy is a cover.
@@freemansaquatics5326 The European settlers used and abused the land. That attitude continues in this industry. After all , they have shareholder profits to think about and bonuses. They can easily afford to sort out their mess.
The oil and gas industry makes record profits but they leave their waste for the state to clean up. Its so wrong!
you try making people 10 cent more per gallon of gas....
We should ask why the state allows them to do so, and how many people in that state have shareholdings in the companies.
💯
Its because the State is corrupt
@@marconius101 That is one of the problems.... the US have very low fuel prices. Many other countries (especially in Europe) have much higher prices (mostly taxes) on their fuel - meaning that there are a lot less V8's and other fuel inefficient vehicles on the roads. People are also more likely to use bikes or walk for short trips to the supermarket etc.
In Sweden we pay approx USD 1.90 per litre... about USD 7.20 per gallon. Average price in the US today is USD 3.15 per gallon... or USD 0.83 per litre.
This is an important reminder that corporations aren't our friends and that real evil exists in the world.
You need a reminder for that ?
Yet, you want to work to make money from the evil. The money is the root cause of all evil, you and I are guilty of it.
yet, you still oil (Gas) for car and gas for cooking ????
Perhaps they would be if they where held to the same legal standards as everyone else. You know? When they pay taxes and provide jobs with fair wages to people who makes quality products at a reasonable price in a sustainable manner, then who can object? They problem starts when we allow them to bribe politicians and escape responsibility.
It's greed , not evil . You act like they like killing people . The governments are the ones allowing it nc their pockets get fat for turning their cheek. And when they can't deny facts they slap them on the wrist until next time
To be absolutely corrupted means they are evil beyond belief!!! That's what power does to these oil companies!
Money
I love your expression of such disheartening disregard dishonesty against innocent people.
Thankfully DW brings these important documentaries to life. It's heartening to know someone cares to do this type of selfless work. High kudos and all the Best energies to those fighting oil companies
Thanks for watching and for the feedback!
This is nothing more than a fear-mongering story that plays on the heart strings of the viewers in order to get people to watch it.
Ive said for years that im willing to let oil and gas execs run their operations wherever and however they like AS LONG AS they are willing to live, and let their grandchildren live, in the immediate proximity of their company's operations. If they are not willing to live there, then something is obviously unsafe about the operations.
Work on oil and gas even in a developed country like Canada for a few years and you see some crazy, crazy stuff compared to other industries I've been in.
@@obtuseangler768Money, my friend, doesn’t care how developed a country is.
@@EndritVjso true. 😢
That part
Norway is pretty safe ? A norwegian exec said he wouldnt let his kids work on british sector tho
DW again with another insightful documentary
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment.
Atleast no American Propaganda today.
@@DWDocumentaryJust please be nice to oil from now on 🙌
My dad was a roughneck at TOSCO (Now Martinez Oil and Gas Co in Martinez, CA) and I'm almost positive pollutant exposure is why we both have health problems. I used to do his laundry for him as a kid
They should be forced to return the site to the state it was in before drilling. Plugging a site is not a solution if the metal can corrode and leak. Monitoring the wells is not a solution either because the oil and gras industry has no interest in monitoring and maintaining the sites.
Exactly. only way is force those companies to pay up until the leak stops.
You can't once a well is punched it can only be filled with concrete and that plug isn't permanent time brakes down everything that's the nature of things
@@Drobert882 Well now I am scared. How was digging wells permitted in the first place if there is no way to permanently plug a well? Do you know if a well stops leaking if all the oil has been removed? Or is that not possible with todays technology?
@@Drobert882
That's curious. Meanwhile with nuclear, "WE MUST KEEP IT SEALED UP FOR CENTURIES".
Actively monitoring it how ever what's the sun ? A big ball of radio active elements in constant reaction as is every star visible
There was a viral video of this lady's dog going crazy and digging holes into the sidewalk. She said her Husky never dug holes because they live in a big city but they had a small yard. Sure enough that Husky was going crazy. She goes outside with her gas meter that a lot of residents would keep to check their stoves and heaters. The detector was beeping like crazy and blinking red. There was a gas leak underground
Lies again? Gun Oil Union Gas
This is a scandal; these things must be closed immediately
they don't care. MONEY
Lol this is why drilling for oil should never be done to begin with. Once a hole has been created, it will continue to emit gases even if all the oil has already been extracted. Oil companies often use the logic of dormant volcanoes with oil drilling, saying if a volcano can go extinct, why can't oil holes go extinct either? What they don't know is that while extinct volcanoes no longer boils visible magma and lava, it still emits sulfuric gases, so in the same logic an oil hole can still emit gases like methane even if it is no longer producing oil. And closing these holes permanently is gonna be tricky either because with time, wear and tear can eventually break those seals so this is gonna be a lifetime (earth's lifetime not ours lol) maintenance.
Scandalous😢
Without DWs investigative journalism we would still be walking around thinking at least we are not having war so we are safe 😮 this is insightful
If fossil fuel products and their derivatives (incl. your car's gasoline, your heating, plastics, food, ..) were priced to include the external costs those industries inflict on society and the biosphere as a whole, then most of these products would be priced out of the market. The prices of all these goods and services are pure illusion, a bookkeeper's slight of hand.
Absolutely. But economics obfuscates harm and measures benefit to create the possibility of profit. If nature had a cost, and harm was internalized, all business models would be unfeasible. Think about it, inflation is just nature and people becoming more valuable relative to capital - and it has to be reversed to ‘save capitalism’. Markets don’t work, but the only reason this insanity endures is because the state uses coercion to enforce private property. They call it freedom, but force me to live by this indefensible accounting disaster.
Yes!!! Over 6,000 daily products that we depend on are derived from them!!
you can protest, threaten or beg them to clean up after themselves, all day.
But at the end of that day, they have dinner with the politicians who make the rules. And together they decide to do NOTHING...
How is that working out for Germany and the EU? The cost after they rejected Russian gas is destroying their economy and deindustrializing the country. The cost for LNG which is 4-20x as much now is nowhere near pricing to include external costs. There would be a revolt and governments would be overthrown if it were priced this way.
You’re right. We should all be walking and using horses and mules!
As a Petroleum Engineer, seeing wells with water flowing to surface is tough to watch. Most countries would not allow this - and especially not here in Canada. It’s sad that US Regulations don’t have a mechanism to resolve this issue. As a consumer, source your natural gas responsibly! We all use it - whether as fuel for heating, electricity for our EVs, or plastics at our hospitals.
You’re very wrong. Canada has abandoned wells all over the place. Canada is as bad as the rest of them.
You avin a laugh? Source your gas responsibly? If you buy from a "reputable" source the gas that comes through the pipe is still drilled and extracted by Shell Oiil, or Exxon, or Mobil or whoever. They are jsut resellers. There is no direct pipe to your house from the "reputable" source. And you, as an egineer, would know this. But you are not an engineer are you?
Same thing as source your electricity responsibly, you have no idea if it comes from renewables, gas or coal…
I don't use it at all, and its usage in plastic production isn't my usage of it.
@@RokeJulianLockhart.s13ouqit's in alot more things than you think, like lubricants that don't go in cars
a big problem with chevron is they bought out gulf oil and with that buyout almost nothing was up to spec. gulf oil left a 50 million gallon tank of benzene near my town to rot and it all leaked out into the ground water which most people in the area had shallow water wells that got ruined. the state had to build a water pipeline because everyone lost their wells do the benzene
I live in Pennsylvania. This is like watching a horror movie. Makes me feel like the earth is already beyond the tipping point.
No, it's our collective intelligence that has reached a tipping point.
We have reached a point where we are so stupid collectively, that we are too stupid to even realise how stupid we are.
This is the reality that others want to exclude from us.
People complain windmills kill a couple birds…oil and gas has damaged and killed literally millions of animals and humans 😯
But it's saved more than it's harmed.
We should thank RESPONSIBLE gas companies for putting the methane to good use. If it just leaks into the air, it's very bad for health and environment. If we don't capture and use it, it will eventually escape unburned.
The issue isn’t the birds it’s just the fact that windmills cannot meet energy needs
As an ex rig worker I know 1st hand that this comes from working to fast. If the well was a plug job it was always a big panic to plug the well to move on to the next job. Years later I remember moving back onto abandoned wells and re drilling and re plugging these wells.
Superb report. Very well done DW. Plenty of work for the future. Five stars
And we are being told it's the cows producing all the methane and we have to get rid of them. Lmfao
Gates at his finest!!! Once again. One of his companies in the UK has had a patent on a cov9teen vaccine since 2017
Well it is better for the environment if we eat plants
@@SigFigNewton thing is we all have plastic in our blood! Search it 👀
Not really, when you consider the amount of pesticides used and the damage to wild life and the environment from pesticides.
who is telling you that? individual cars are responsible of 60% of all greenhouses gaz... i guess as you are in the US nobody is telling you that right? cuz youwant to continue to drive your giant car... alone..
This is the most murican kinda documentary DW has ever produced. Incredibly you have sort of achieved a good balance between "the dramatic shots, flash edits and animations" with information and good narrative.
Please never fall into rethorical questioning every 10 sentences and the dramatic shots should be more National Geographic early 2000´s and less A&Eish.
Keep it up DW!
Made it unwatchable. Was interested but kept fighting the royalty free music and sound effects and just really everything about the nature in which this was made haha
I love the local doctor who knew immediately toxicology tests would be revealing, because the advice letter said not to do that 😊. Red Flag.
Great documentary DW a real eye-opener. Isn't it tragic that humans are so devalued by corporate greed, irresponsiblity and ineffective governance and oversight. Past generations respected nature because our very survival depended on nature from season to season and necessitated a symbiotic relationship. Sadly those who exploit the world's resources are so rich and removed from the source of their bounty that they never face or experience the consequences of their negligence but you can bet they know what they're leaving behind and the potential risks to nature and humanity. Well done to the environmentalists and individuals calling out these crimes against humanity and nature. Lets hope they are supported in obtaining redress and remedial action quickly.
00:16 Abandoned oil and gas wells pose a ticking time bomb
13:45 Improperly sealed oil and gas wells pose life-threatening risks due to negligence and lack of maintenance.
19:41 Abandoned oil and gas wells pose chronic benzene exposure risks.
22:21 Abandoned oil and gas wells pose significant environmental and safety risks.
27:19 significant risk as they are causing gushing saltwater and potential ecological disaster.
30:22 North Sea pose a significant risk due to methane emissions.
36:09 36,000 idle oil and gas wells pose a risk of not being properly cleaned up.
38:37 Oil and gas industry strategy for low-producing wells
we got it
We have 270,000 abandoned oil and gas wells in the province of Alberta Canada. We also have higher rates of respiratory disease, MS, and certain types of cancer of all provinces in Canada. Oil and gas processing also emits harmful chemicals from both gas plants and flaring of waste gas. Some of those include toxic heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium.
Yes but without the oil industry Alberta is Manitoba with mountains.
So you are saying that we should just let oil companies profit from the provinces natural resources without expecting them to be obligated to safely decommission their wells when they are done. Seems kinda one-sided to me. @@georgehancock2307
Flaring is a good thing unless there is black smoke. Flaring can burn off 99% of what would have been had it been vented to atmosphere
Different cinematics from other DW's vid, very intriguing. Also, thank you DW for the information you gave to us, it'll bring more insight about the effect of human activity to the environment.
Keep up the good work team DW
The toxic narsties from them old wells will be a headache for eons.
And a stomach ache
And vomiting
Surprise! Cancer!
Why are none of the inspectors wearing gas monitors especially the one that goes and sniffs the gas? Did he know H2S could be present?
it is appalling we let these worldwide companies destroy our only home without accountability or recourse.
Thank you DW for bringing it true and raw to us. This js really sad for the future of humanity.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment.
I live in Oklahoma, I had an abandoned well wake up and start producing gas in my backyard. We had a terrible oder and the local mineral owner would not do anything. I had to go out in the woods and find it and shut it down myself.
Damn I've never realized how big of a problem this is
Thank you, DW for your documentaries that open our minds. I would like to request your team to visit and document Kilembe Copper Mines Limited, a former open-cast mining area that closed back in 1982 but to date, there's no economic activity going on except devastating the Western Uganda regions, especially Kasese District.
Important to clean up this mess before it gets out of control .
ominous music too loud, can' hear the humans
Just goes to show how quickly we are running out of fossil fuel.
Crude oil does not come from Fossils, and definately isn't running out.
Fossils have nothing to do with it. That was something coined by Rockefeller himself to trick the masses into thinking that oil was a valuable asset. Before Standard oil, electricity was being used.
This should all be funded by the oil and gas companies. They did this!!! they should pay for it!!
Make billions on selling this stuff, but it's too expensive to take care of the maintenance cost. It's like saying you're rich but still rely on food stamps
All the documentaries you guys make are so good it is just fantastic!
Sometimes i get extremely mad seeing all the bad things we humans have done for no good reason!!! Good that you guys show it to the world!
Old abandoned wells left by companies that are no longer in business should be taken care of by the government, and a special urgent budget every year allocated to them. For the functioning Wells, all should be linked to the companies occupying them and a special TAX should be established to maintain them once they are out of business or service. The oil and Gas lobby is killing us slowly. This is sad, greed is our enemy.
Why should government pay. Why not oil companies that made the cash 🤔
@@mrs9848 Some of these companies are perhaps no more, so the government can only fine or tax those existing companies.
@@TheQuranCuresmabey oli companies should be held responsible for the damage they cause they should pay for the cleanup not the taxpayer
@@definitlynotbenlente7671 You are right, but what about those long-gone companies? I am suggesting that the living companies should pay extra tax or a special tax to be used to maintain these wells once these companies are out of business.
Whoever directs the music for these DW docos OVERDOES THE MUSIC.
Well done DW, that's the sort of documentary one is after..a follow-up would be so much better!
Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts!
Yes. Please involve the environmental impact of blowing up the German-Russian pipeline, and the cost of importing methane from America.
@@0mymeh.
Russia probably did it.
Plus we needed to stop giving Russia money.
Norway is a cleaner better source anyways.
They have long long term plans that we (the USA) can learn from.
@@equarg that doesn't make sense. Russia could have just turned it off.
DW Documentary Excellent work, as per your usual. Keep 'em coming in 2024!
Thanks for watching and for the feedback!
This documentary is being produced by a German broadcasting company mostly about oil wells in America.
Not an American broadcasting company. Let that sink in.
humans did this and now nature is fighting back.
Absolutely superb video documentary footage DW 👍🇦🇺👍
Recently watched the video about making a beautiful furniture made from epoxy. Now it seems like a trend. 20 years ago I could not imagine that you can make nicest stuff out of epoxy.
Guess what is the source of producing epoxy?
Documentaries like these helped convince me to get a vasactomy. No way I'll bring more humans onto this planet, getting prepped to work for corporations like these as soon as they can welk and then deal with housing issues, climate change and politicial nonsense. I love my non-existing children too much to put them through all that.
As a woman I took a vow of celibacy.
My gut knows the future is bleak.
I will not bring kids into this world. To much short term and long term danger.
Those leaking wells next to that neighborhood in Bakersfield were repaired May 20, 2022, after complaints were filed. Sunray Petroleum hadn't produced anything since 2016 and those wells likely were leaking for years. As far as I can tell, no fines were issued for the leaks. There are tens of thousands of wells in the area - many seem abandoned/derelict and nobody seems to monitor them. No surprise air quality near Bakersfield is horrific.
Thank you for your reporting
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment.
Cap and Tap. I bought a property near one of these abandoned wells. I then proceeded to jerry rig an 80s micro gas to power turbine to power my farm and homestead. Yes, I used a concrete dome to "cap" and then tap it my generator. "free" power 24/7. Do this on the down low though, bury the pipes.
We as humans will eventually destroy what we have! All about the bottom line! The money!
I want more about this. I now live in California and while i knew there used to be oil wells on the beach, i didnt know there were still so many "inactive" ones.
MLK said it 60 years ago: we need to move from a thing-oriented society to a people-oriented society...everything is about profit. "Oh, we can't make money with this any more, moving on!" I feel like businesses that operate on a physical product (natural resource mining, consumer products, even drugs) should always be required to deal with the "result" of their products. Clean up, recycling, and disposal with the latter being required to have near zero impact on the environment.
Meanwhile, we give oil companies tax breaks while they make literal BILLIONS in profit. I think they can easily afford to clean up their messes...
It’s markets. Ownership turns everything into tradable commodities that are produced, consumed and discarded. It breaks the personal connection by turning nature and people into objects. Government should just nationalize the global energy system at this point, and be bound by constitutional amendments to protect natural integrity.
I love and appreciate DW.
I lived in Porter Ranch next to golf course.. So glad I sold my home and moved out before the gas leak. I used to mtn bike in those hills.
Thank you DW.
I live in Rochester NY and dated a girl from Allegany, so we'd spend time there. I brought the 4 wheeler first, then started bringing my KTM off road dirt bike. Believe me, there's abandoned equipment EVERYWHERE on those hills. You'll see a hundred foot long piece of maybe 2 or 3 inch diameter pipe running across and down from something, I'm guessing a well, and they used to drip into 55 gal drums. Oil gathering equipment and lengths of pipe are all over. You can't go 1/2 mile without running over a pipe or seeing an area with a bunch of junk. I never heard or never heard of gas leaks. And those people are poor, so if there wa gas leaking out, they'd find a way to collect it!
Another masterpiece DW✔️
DW does not even have to look across the pond. In Germany there are literally thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells. That's right in Germany. I know from an oil field worker that in the abandoned fields around Hanover there are many leaky wells. I'm not against oil and gas. I just want the companies to stop polluting. They privatize profits and socialize the financial and environmental costs.
@DW making yet another impactful documentry
The background "music"(?) is giving me a headache. Real news doesn't need a soundtrack.
Hopefully it's being plugged at a sustainable rate with society's move towards renewable energy.
DW documentary is the best!
Thanks for watching and for the feedback!
What an eye-opener this is for me. This is truly evil stuff going on and the time plus the scale is unfathomable as there is so much damage done. However, what these people are doing in response to the henious acts of those oil companies abandoning the wells is very heroic and commendable.
I have to wonder about all the fracking wells in recent years. Seems like that must cause disruption underground that leads to the ground leaking.
They do! I know of a stay at home mom (may she rip) from Pennsylvania that her and her husband refused to allow the company to frack on their property but the nieghbor's did and it went under their property, leaked and she died from drinking her water!!!
@@WarriorGirl_113 Thank G Dubya Bush.
your most welcome @@samshepperrd
They're causing earthquakes and horrible water. Nothing to wonder about it's out there if you look
@@WarriorGirl_113 horrible
I like the big starfish at 31:28 chilling by the methane leak.
I'm all for drilling and oil but these big companies need to be held accountable.
UK 22/4b-4 Mobil North Sea, High Seas Driller. Shallow gas blowout in 1990, still leaking 2024.
What a mess.
The house that completely exploded from the inside, it exploded because all residents were away, so they closed all doors and windows before they left. You cannot smell methane, but you can feel oxygen depletion, you just feel that you need to open a window or go outside. You learn that you only get a good night of sleep with a window partly open. So you unconsciously avoid the danger, even as the danger cannot be perceived directly. The inhabitants kept the building safe by somehow noticing a need for fresh air and managing it. Then they all went on vacation, closed all windows and doors for that, and BOOM, the building got blown into pieces.
In Germany, natural gas is used a lot, but before it is fed into the natural gas grid, they add a smelly agent. So gas leaks smell in a particular, noticeable way. Burned gas does not smell, the smelly agent obviously is destroyed by burning it. So gas leaks have a scent, it smells bad put particular to a gas leak. It is also particular to unburned gas, so you can smell the difference between a small leak and a potential hazard.
awe we know how germany uses gas
Natural gas supplied by utilities, is tagged with mercaptan here in the States as well. The gas that exploded that home was leaking from a natural underground source.
@@irenafarm I would rather expect that the natural gas leaked from an unnaturally opened natural underground source. Like when flammable gas comes with the drinking water in some places AFTER fracking has been done.
I am so glad that I came across your channel! You have a new subscriber!
💛💛💛💛💛💛💛
It seems like a dome could be placed over the ocean floor leaks with a pipe to the surface where the gas could be collected or flared.
They flare off more gas then they capture for LNG by far...every oil well starts life as a gas well.
I've seen them flare off enough to melt most of the snow off a several hectares at -40 for weeks on a lease.
@@obtuseangler768The amount of gas flared off honestly blows my mind. Why aren't we collecting and using it? Sure storage is expensive, but it's such a waste. We could use that gas but we don't - and the answer to why is that it isn't as profitable. Ridiculous.
I feel the pressure of the ocean would crush any such pipe while it was just stood around waiting for something to fill the pipe.
@@zigzagtoes If gas is constantly emitting, and rising up towards the surface, it will fill the hood or bell. If there were a pipe to the surface, the pressure of the gathering gas would force the gas up to the surface where it would be collected.
@@samshepperrd i get that, but, if there's no leak, then the pipe would be empty. So until there is a leak, there wouldn't be enough pressure to keep it structually sound. Ahh, sorry misread your first point. Yes if it were already leaking then it would work. I thought you meant cover abandoned well with a dome and pipe encase it did leak (ie premptive) whereas what you put is clearly as a reactive measure.
There are enough resources on this planet to cover all peoples needs. But not enough for their greed.
I'm not sure, but I am sure the companies who engineered them wont be paying for the clean up.
"Avoid performing any toxicological tests".
Does this not imply that we are dealing with psychopaths?
Yeah anything for profit
It's interesting how people say they can smell gas coming from abandoned wells... Methane has no smell, that's why it has a smell added to it for domestic use so we can smell it if it leaks in the home.
Methane wasn’t the main problematic gas in the only credible section that specifically mentioned smell. Benzene smells like green apple flavored paint thinner.
The person who stuck his head in the gas flow and said he smelled something has dodgy judgment imo. I wouldn’t have featured his opinion at all. That was just bonkers.
Beau travail 👍 well done
@21:10 Godbless you hero, these corrupt bullies need to be reminded we all exist together.
Oil or gas drillers how long does it take to drill a well setup pipe and pumping site. And how much estimate cost ?
Fascinating & horrifying programme as far as it went - but I hope it was just the first in a series..?
So the methane seeping from the wetlands near me is from oil wells? Nearest oil well is atleat 200 miles away
Maybe Thunberg, Kerry and Gore should be given a yellow jacket and a spanner to help clean this mess up instead of flying to Davos in private jets to talk about cows.
Alberta Canada is littered with abandoned oil sites . Just walked away when the price tanked . Corporations leaving their toxic liter for others to clean up .
Another reason I don't have kids: German documentaries trying to scare you from dusk til dawn and then all through the night.
You just want kids. 😂
Be brave. Be strong.
My concern is the oils being removed from cavities in the earth and nothing being put back to replace the extracted oil and gas. Sink holes, or small earth quakes caused by the collapsing of the cavity
if the state is plugging those wells, that means its the taxpayers, not the tax-dodging multinationals who exploited the land for x years untill it was not longer profitable
Imagine if the petroleum companies actually cleaned up their messes they be half as wealthy as they are, because they've made the biggest mess of our mother🌎
They are so happy to find a oil well leaking
If these wells supposedly leak so mush methane gas, why not trap it and use it for energy?
Just half way through the video and can't believe the residents were exposed to benzene! That's so bad.
I remember working at a petroleum plant as a student (in Canada) and all of us had to be fitted for respirators in case of a benzene leak. It's no joke.
Even if I'm not a US citizen, I do not agree that the State should plug them up. Apply the polluter pays principle!!!
they better start sealing newly defunct wells.
30k pounds wow that is majorly effd up wow? 30m each at least break the company i would have refused that settlement or pulled out of the suit filed myself
There's a century of reclamation of land.
Rather interesting documentary.
The residents would have had to agree to the out of court settlement. Had they denied that, they could have gone to trial and got a ruling, one way or another.
Another wonderful documentary shared by an excellent ( DW) documentary channel. Documentary about ticking time bomb, abandoned oil well,Methan wells around the world.
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are glad you like our content!
Just devastating...
Oil wells are supposed to have pressure, and 50 PSI is actually very low pressure and Chevron may redrill and or rework the well and put back into production at later date. There are many different layers in the earth that produce oil and gas. That lady complaining about chevron wells on her land don’t know what she is talking about. Oil wells are generally decommissioned and plugged ONE TIME, all the equipment on the surface is removed and the well head is removed, the well is plugged buy pumping cement down the well and there is no sign a well was ever there.