"Waves of Abandonment"

"The Permian Basin is ground zero for a billion-dollar surge of zombie oil wells."

"As oil and gas companies weathered volatile oil prices last year, many halted production. More than 100,000 oil and gas wells in Texas and New Mexico are idle.

Of these, there are about 7,000 “orphaned” wells that the states are now responsible for cleaning up.

But statistical modeling by Grist and The Texas Observer suggests another 13,000 wells are likely to be abandoned in the coming years.

A conservative estimate of the cleanup cost? Almost $1 billion. And that doesn’t consider the environmental fallout."

Clayton Aldern, Christopher Collins, and Naveena Sadasivam report for Grist and the Texas Observer with support by the Pulitzer Center April 12, 2021.