Methane leaks from dormant oil and gas wells in Canada are seven times worse than thought, McGill study suggests
Methane leaks from dormant oil and gas wells in Canada are seven times worse than thought, McGill study suggests
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I'm not an oil guy, but since methane has its uses, would there not be a way to capture this gas and sell it?
It's a good bit of infrastructure to capture, compress, transport, and sell methane on the market. Since these are "non-producing" wells, I would assume that the leakage is (relatively) low and maybe not be worth the cost of all the setup and maintenance.
Just put a methane generator on them and sell the power onto the grid. Its what many landdfills do with their methane.
Lots of industries just flare it when the winds are blowing the right way, ie: downwind of any Environment Canada sensors.
Flaring is much better than just letting the methane escape so it would be a better solution than doing nothing and would be a great stepping stone to a more permanent option. Flaring would be much cheaper than a methane generator or capture device.
Garbage dumps are close to the grid and the users.
Many of the worst offenders are very old wells, as much as a century old. Their original owners are long gone which is how governments ended up being burdened with capping them.
Like many old toxic mines, the creators of the problems have evaded legal liability by going out of business. Legal frameworks may be more rigorous now but the old wells and mines remain.
Some of the oldest wells, like the ones near Petrolia in SW Ontario, might be economically viable for methane power generation. Others in Saskatchewan and Alberta are likely not.