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Offshore oil and gas production in the U.S. began in the early 20th century, with production in the Gulf of Mexico beginning in the late 1930s. It was not until 1982, however, that the government created the Minerals Management Service (MMS) and passed the Federal Oil Gas Royalty Management Act, requiring recordkeeping for where and when wells were drilled, and to whom they were sold.
In 2010, MMS split into what would become BOEM, BSEE, and the Office of Natural Resources Revenue. All U.S. federal waters are now leased out by BOEM, and all wells and platforms are monitored and regulated by BSEE.
Once leases are finalized, companies can drill exploration wells—the initial boreholes used to determine whether an area will be profitable.
And what that exploratory well looks like depends on the geology of where you're drilling. "In offshore environments it can be thousands, maybe even 20,000 or 30,000 feet underwater. And how far into the ocean floor you drill will again just depend on that geology," Wesley Williams, an engineer at Louisiana State University, told EHN
In the early days, companies drilled exploration wells with little to no concern, Williams said—"there's some areas where we joke that it's like Swiss cheese." But now, regulators are more scrupulous.
As they drill, whether exploratory or not, companies consistently check for economic viability, Williams said. When that economic viability tips over to red, the owners either sell or decommission.
But what is considered "economically viable" differs from company to company. Leases and rights to drill at one site may pass through multiple companies over the years. Once a well stops generating interest or profit potential, it is decommissioned.
Related: Oil and gas methane emissions in US are at least 15% higher than we thought
Every well is supposed to be decommissioned when no longer active in concordance with federal law. Platforms at the surface are supposed to be removed, and boreholes in the ocean floor need to be plugged with cement or a similar material. But not every well is decommissioned properly. Sometimes, especially if the parent company goes out of business, they are simply orphaned, left to idle and leak until the government handles plugging.
Erik Milito, president of National Ocean Industries Association wrote EHN in an email: "Between Federal plugging and abandonment regulations, which require the installation and testing of barriers, and the natural tendencies of methane, the likelihood of methane emissions escaping from oil and gas activities on the sea floor is extremely low."
Sandy Day, BSEE's press secretary wrote EHN in an email that "BSEE inspects all offshore facilities at least once per year; and inspects drilling rigs at least once per month. BSEE conducts pollution surveillance and offshore site-specific inspections using helicopters flying from district office locations around the Outer Continental Shelf." Day did not address how they monitor abandoned or orphaned wells, specifically.
But federal policies for these wells are "difficult to administer and it's easy to evade," Megan Milliken Biven, an energy policy researcher and former BOEM employee, told EHN. And these agencies' policies are basically all "beyond the scope and capability of the resources the agency has."
She added that most of these agencies' "due diligence" safety evaluations are more about giving themselves a pass than actually discerning risk. BOEM has a guidebook to evaluate the environmental impact of any drilling operation, "and I would say that that document doesn't exist to actually remove or mitigate any kind of risk. It's only to state the risk so that when someone tries to sue the agency, they can say, 'look, we looked at the risk.'"
Milliken Biven also said that it's hard to define what holes there are in the system, because "that assumes that there is a standard for plugging and abandonment, that assumes that there is a standard for checking for leaks, that assumes that there is a standard for site clearance and restoration...but there is none."
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