Unplugged Wells
3.5 Million Abandoned Wells Are Leaking Methane Into the Atmosphere
Across the United States, millions of orphaned oil and gas wells sit unplugged, quietly venting methane, a greenhouse gas roughly 80 times more potent than CO2 over 20 years. One nonprofit is plugging them well by well.
The scale of the problem
Well Done Foundation's progress
The evidence
Millions of Forgotten Wells
The EPA estimates roughly 3.5 million abandoned oil and gas wells sit unplugged across the United States. Many were drilled decades ago by companies that went bankrupt or disappeared, leaving no one legally responsible for sealing them.
A Potent, Invisible Leak
Unplugged wells vent methane directly into the atmosphere. Methane traps roughly 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, making these forgotten wells a disproportionately large driver of near-term warming despite their small individual size.
Local Contamination, Too
Beyond climate impact, abandoned wells can leak brine and hydrocarbons into soil and groundwater, threatening the farmland, wildlife refuges, and rural communities built up around them over the past century of drilling.
Someone Is Already Fixing This
The Well Done Foundation locates, measures, and plugs orphaned wells across the country, working with landowners, state governments, and corporate partners. To date it has plugged 115 wells and eliminated more than 2.0 million metric tons of CO2e.
Scaling Up With Partners
The foundation has partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to plug over 110 additional orphan wells starting in 2025, and with corporate partners like Oracle to fund plugging projects in New Mexico. A restoration effort at Deep Fork National Wildlife Refuge plugged 30 wells in a single year.
Funded By Carbon Offsets
The foundation sells Blue Ribbon Climate Benefit Units, verified offsets priced at $25 per metric ton of CO2e, to individuals and companies. That revenue directly funds the location, measurement, and plugging of additional wells.
What we can do
This is not a problem waiting for a solution, it already has one. The Well Done Foundation has a working model: find a leaking well, measure its emissions, plug it, restore the land, and fund the next one. What it needs is scale, more landowners willing to report old wells, more corporate and individual support for its carbon benefit units, and more public pressure on states to fund orphan well programs so the remaining 3.4 million wells do not outlast the people trying to seal them.
Visit the Well Done Foundation
Sources: Well Done Foundation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
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