Drone-based methane emissions monitoring from orphaned oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania, US

More than a hundred thousand documented orphaned oil and gas wells are known to exist in the United States, with potentially millions remaining undocumented. Due to funding shortfalls, many orphaned wells remain unplugged and continue to emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Drone-based methane emission measurements can help prioritize mitigation efforts for orphaned wells and aid in locating undocumented orphaned wells, which are wells with unknown locations and conditions. In collaboration with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) and the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Orphan Well Program, we will present the results of drone-based methane emission measurements across four regions in Pennsylvania with a high likelihood of containing undocumented orphaned wells. We will share our insights on the potential for detecting methane emissions using drone-based tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS), an emerging technology for methane monitoring in the oil and gas sector. Additionally, this work explores the foundation of a screening method for providing first-order estimates of methane emission rates at orphaned well sites. We will compare the methane measurements with potential well locations identified using drone-based magnetometry data, historical maps, LiDAR, and atmospheric data. Our results will be helpful for prioritizing plugging and remediation for the hundreds of thousands, and potentially millions, orphaned wells across the US and the world.