Being abandoned isn’t always bad
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VIC LEIPZIG AND LOU MURRAY
We were thrilled to learn that the California Coastal Conservancy
last week awarded $10 million to the Bolsa Chica wetlands restoration
project. Combined with the funds already obtained, this final sum
should help restoration proceed.
Since 1997, when the State Lands Commission purchased the bulk of
the Bolsa Chica lowlands, a potpourri of governmental agencies,
companies and consultants has been planning the restoration, cleaning
up toxics and abandoning many of the existing oil wells.
In the oil industry, abandoning an oil well doesn’t mean walking
away from it. Abandonment means decommissioning. This is an orderly
process that shuts down and plugs the well to render it inactive and
safe so it won’t spray oil all over nearby homes.
The existing wells at Bolsa Chica are currently owned by Aera
Energy LLC. In September 2003, Aera began decommissioning some of
them.
The cost of capping these wells will be about $7 million to $7.5
million, with the state paying $5 million and Aera paying the rest of
the cost. Of the 56 wells to be capped, 39 were still actively
producing, but 17 have been idle for some time. In addition, the
state paid Aera $4.62 million to compensate for the lost oil revenue.
As we learned when we spoke with John Limousin, who is in charge
of decommissioning the wells at Bolsa Chica, capping and abandoning a
well is a multi-step process.
The first step is to turn off the motor that powers the pump. That
was about the last thing Limousin said that we understood. The rest
of the procedure involved the names of a lot of mechanical parts that
we’re not familiar with. Bottom line is that the pumping unit or
lifting mechanism has to be removed from producer wells, which means
that everything that you can see above ground and a lot that you
can’t see below ground are gone.
The outer well casing remains in place, but the inner pipes are
removed in 30-foot-long sections. More than 160 inner pipe sections
are winched out of an average 5,000-foot-deep well. The well lining
is scraped so that the cement plug will adhere and the hole is
cleaned to remove debris.
The bottom of the well has holes in the outer casing to allow oil
to ooze into it prior to being pumped up. During decommissioning, the
well is sealed deep down with concrete to plug these holes and to
prevent any oil, water or debris from seeping into the well and
rising to the surface.
Limousin pointed out that in the old days, some small operators
would just jam a telephone pole into a well and call it capped. Many
sealed the holes with a series of concrete plugs, but they used the
same type of concrete that was used for building foundations.
The wells at Bolsa Chica are being shut down with far better
technology. The cement has additives that help it flow better and
harden faster. It is delivered to the holes under pressure, which is
necessary to seal the bottom, which may be as much as 6,000 to 7,000
feet down. And unlike some operators that seal the well with a series
of concrete plugs with gaps between, Aera pours concrete down the
entire shaft, often using different types of concrete for different
types of seal at different levels. At Bolsa Chica, the casing is
filled to within 25 feet of the surface and the outer casing pipe is
then cut at that level, capped and sealed to allow for future
dredging of the deep-water channel.
Oil remaining in the abandoned field will stay where it is, nearly
a mile beneath the surface. Aera has no plans to slant drill new
wells to retrieve the oil that remains. An additional 73 pumps will
be left operating in a section of the north Bolsa wetlands. Once
those wells are capped and abandoned, the remaining 300 acres of
wetlands in that area will be restored, but this may be as much as 20
years in the future.
Unfortunately, some operators can’t afford to decommission their
wells. The oil well that sprung a leak and sprayed 7,000 gallons of
crude oil over Southeast Huntington Beach two weeks ago had not gone
through a decommissioning process. The owner had just walked away
from it. The problems experienced in that situation shouldn’t occur
with the properly capped wells at Bolsa Chica.
Many homes in Southeast Huntington Beach and in the Downtown area
have been built on top of abandoned wells. Some people are concerned
that natural pressure from wells that were sealed with older
technology might some day produce problems due to buildup of
combustible gases or oil seepage. Fortunately, Huntington Beach is a
low-pressure oil field, so even older capped wells should hold,
unless of course, the operator simply dropped a telephone pole down
the well.
Those that have been shut down but not capped are a concern. Some
residents have orphaned wells near their homes. If not maintained,
these wells can be a hazard, as we saw recently.
We’re happy that the wells at Bolsa Chica are being properly
capped so that restoration can proceed safely, and bird and marine
life can flourish. From a human safety point of view, perhaps
restoring an abandoned oil field back to natural habitat is a better
use of the land than converting it into a residential area.
* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and
environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected].
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