Abandoned Oil Wells Pose Growing Risks in Permian Basin

By Haley Zaremba - Mar 19, 2025, 4:00 PM CDT

Depleted and abandoned oil wells in West Texas are causing environmental issues such as sinkholes and blowouts, leading to significant financial costs for cleanup.

The Texas Railroad Commission has requested additional funding to address the increasing number of emergency well issues, highlighting the urgency of the problem.

There are millions of orphan wells nationwide that have not been sealed, leaving taxpayers responsible for cleanup and posing ongoing risks to water sources and the environment.



As the number of depleted and abandoned oil wells in the West Texas Permian Basin continues to grow in the long shadow of the United States shale revolution, associated environmental and public health hazards are ballooning in tandem. “From sinkholes to blowouts to persistent leaks, more than a century of oil drilling in the region has left a daunting array of environmental hazards,” the Texas Tribune wrote in a collaborative report with InsideClimate News earlier this week.

This is not a new issue in the United States. Back in December 1990, a federal oversight agency issued a warning that environmental devastation was all but guaranteed if oil and gas wells across the country were not sealed – and sealed well – after being depleted or abandoned. The memo noted that the responsibility for this maintenance lay in the hands of cash-strapped drillers sitting on unproductive wells who simply could not afford to properly seal the wells, creating a ticking time bomb for future generations.

And now, that bomb is set to blow. Aging wells are springing leaks left and right across rural Texas, creating major environmental and health issues for local communities and racking up massive bills. Just this week, the Texas Tribune reported on a giant sinkhole that has opened up under an old oil well on a family ranch in West Texas. The Kelton Ranch well was plugged in 1977, but now it has turned into a 200-foot sinkhole that could comfortably fit an entire four-story building. This is just one of many such cases across the Permian Basin. A long series of blowouts has wreaked havoc for the region and cost the state millions, and the urgency of the situation continues to mount.

Twin blowouts took place in 2022 and 2023 just 40 miles away from the Kelton Ranch sinkhole. The December 2023 blowout, which caused brine ponds to flood ranch lands around Crane County, took over a month and $2.5 million to fix. In 2024, a similar blowout popped in Reeves County, and just last month a leak was detected in Pecos County.

The Railroad Commission, the state’s oil and gas drilling and plugging regulator, requested an additional $100 million from the Legislature in late 2024 in an attempt to keep up with the ballooning issue. “The number and cost of emergency wells has significantly increased over the last five years,” Railroad Commission deputy executive director Danny Sorrells wrote to legislators last year. The surprised funding request would increase the current budget for well plugging by 72%, underscoring the scale and urgency of what the Houston Chronicle refers to as “the problem simmering beneath the surface in West Texas.”


In addition to all of the inadequately sealed wells across the region and the country, there are many more “orphan wells” which have not been sealed at all – more than 2 million nationwide. “Many leak contaminants like brine, methane and benzene into waterways, farmland and neighborhoods,” ProPublica reported late last year. “The industry has already left hundreds of thousands of old wells as orphans, meaning companies walked away, leaving taxpayers, government agencies or other drillers on the hook for cleanup.”

This issue is costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars, threatening their water sources, and creating long-term environmental ills. A Texas republican bill was recently introduced to set deadlines to plug more than 150,000 inactive wells across the state over the next 15 years, and to enhance oversight and transparency mechanisms that would help ensure that oil and gas companies make good on their obligations. But the bill has been met with resistance from a Texas Senate panel due to concerns that it will place an unmanageable financial burden on small operators.

By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com