Being abandoned isn’t always bad

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 vicleipzig@aol.com.