abandoned oil wells..........

back in the 80s and early 90s I helped a few guys get abandon oil wells,repair them,and start pumping them again.my son seems interested in trying to inquire about starting them up again.the wells haven't been pumped since ,I would guess mid 90s.im in northern wva and I know of approx. 40-45 wells that are not being used,and their locations.i also know of a few abandoned cable drill machines too.sssoooo.......how would a person go about finding out who owns these wells ??,would there be records at a bureau or agency on their ownership,and some records of their barrel production ??.how many barrels per day would justify looking into this further ??.these are located on the wva-pa state line.i do know that back in the time I helped we did not have to capture the waste/brine,but it now has to be captured,or so I was told....the guys I helped are now dead and it appears no one seems to be knowledgeable/interested in the useage of them...where would you start ???.also some have been idle since the 60s too...

Like starting them up again, getting oil out in to maybe tanker trucks and then marketing it for the going world rate for crude oil?

Landowner should know if there is still an existing lease on them, who owns the lease, etc. Good luck "Jed"

Gene

Consult a lawyer who can investigate old leases and get them removed if necessary.

88-1175- When I leased my oil rights out, the company said they would not make any money unless oil was above $65 per barrel based on WTI crude prices.

I leased when my land when oil prices were $100+ per barrel. Then the bottom dropped out of oil price and they would not drill.

Is there a place that buys crude oil similar to a grain elevator buying grain?

The WV DEP has a website where you can research, you can find the well and the company that is listed as the "operator of record". They also show the historic oil and gas production, but there could also be lots of salt water production that you won't see in the state records. The operator of record probably doesn't own 100% of the well, but presumably some portion. If an internet search doesn't turn up anything about the operator, you can check with the Secretary of State's office or the tax office to see if the company is still in business. I'm not up on WV O&G regulations any more, but most states have regulations on how long wells are inactive before they need to be plugged. If the operator of record is no longer in business, then the wells are "orphans" and if you get involved, then you're probably going to be on the hook to plug them.
Second step will be to go to the court house and trace the ownership of the underlying mineral interests. You should also find a copy of the leases. Depending on the language in the lease(s), the fact that the wells have not produced for some time may mean that the leases are invalid (no longer "held by production")and the original mineral lessee(s) no longer have an interest in the well.
Your best first step might be to ask around and find out of if the guys who last pumped the wells are still alive and can tell you anything about the history of the wells. The operator would have had well files that would should tell you what the downhole configuration of the well was, contain the land records, division orders, joint operating agreements, etc. Who knows where that data is now. Lots of potential problems in this idea, good luck.

My old man had a cable tool here in Ky when I was young. We pumped lots of wells making a barrel or so a day, oil was about $8 or $10. I don't know if it still works the same as then, but usually leases are recorded at the county clerks office, but if abandoned for a long time the lease may have expired. Landowner would be the first contact to make. Not much money to be made now but some folks here are still at it.

elton fancher- Dang! I didn't know you lived in Kentucky. Where abouts are you? I'm from East KY.

Elton ...... so thinking back, you end up with a "barrel" of oil in a barrel or a plastic jug ...... what does a guy do with it then? Take it home and dump it into a bigger holding tank maybe? But then what? Who do you sell it to (who buys crude oil) and how do you sell it? Or maybe you just oil your lane with it.

My dad had a few oil wells back in the late 1970's. Each well had holding tanks, a few thousand gallons size. The well would pump into these tanks. Dad would check the tanks every few day and see how full they were. When a tank or more were close to full he would the hauler to come and pump/haul the oil back to a buyer. Very much like selling grain to the local elevator.

He ain't selling one barrel of oil each day.

Seems like several years ago there was a guy on here that pumped a well enough for tractor fuel. It was an abandoned well on his land.

'Abandoned well' - betcha a buck (CDN - Loonie) that 'SOMEONE' knows where and what it is.

Had a friend at work that decided to do that on the side. He worked old wells in Oklahoma. Bought a workover rig and did a few. Said he employed his wife (all 90# soaking wet) as the "roughneck".

Bottom line was that it wasn't worth the effort and a lot of disinformation as to what might produce and what might not. He said that you'd have a string of wells following a river and all of a sudden the vane would turn but the wells kept going straight. You didn't know where the river turned and which were the dead holes......all wells weren't winners and winners didn't always come with bragging rights.

Also some wells are capped by pouring concrete down the hole for a given distance. Not much use to you.

In Texas the Railroad commission handles oil and gas exploration. If anybody knew the history and ID of a well and owners they would.

One Farmer .... that would be interesting .... burning crude in a tractor if that's what came out of the well.

You can mix crude with gas and run a B or similar John Deere with the kerosene manifold pretty well. Not going to run just anything.

He said he ran it in a diesel. I don't know if he mixed it.

Be cautious 88.

In Manitoba where my cousin lives they cut the casing off below the frost line and plug it with grout and go back to farming over it, I guess once they're dry they're dry.

No. You pump it into a storage tank of maybe 100 barrels, big tanks that vary according to production, but the buyers would come buy and pump it out, I guess kinda like milk, and after a while you get a check. However I did know folks that supposedly stole oil and could haul and sell for cash, no questions. I would like to warn that the oil business is probably more crooked than any other in the modern world. My father-in-law drilled deep wells in west Va. regions for many years, he was a very honest man that got taken a few times. By deep I mean 1800 ft. or so. Around here you might get a little oil above 800. My farm has a lease in perpetuity to Lousville gas and Electric. If I could retrieve the lease I still would not be allowed to drill below the shale formation.

Metcalfe county. I used to do much of my drinking and carousing with some oil type buddies in Jelico Tn.

You know the person about whom I'm speaking!!!!!!!!

(quoted from post at 22:11:58 03/21/18) You know the person about whom I'm speaking!!!!!!!!

Click to expand...

ust talked with him about 10 days ago.

There is usually a difference in domestic crude prices, depending on sulpher content. You will often hear about Texas crude vs Penn and some other things I don't remember.

Viability will depend on type of crude, production per day and amount of saltwater the wells make, in North Louisiana it takes 8-10 bbls per day minimum at the current price to make a profit and that is still dependent on having an economical way to dispose of the saltwater. Best is if you have several wells in close proximity and make one of them into a disposal well, of course all of that is dependent on your local regulations.

I think you are asking for troubles ! Here in Ohio abandoned wells are to be plugged. Many are not for various reasons ? There are 3 in the property behind my house. Guy who owns the land was trying to sell it off and on over the years. We first tried to buy the whole parcel. This fell through. He was to plug the wells as part of the sale. It was roughly going to cost $ 6,000 each to plug them ! Later he listed it for sale again but in parcels. I made an offer on 2 acres right next to me and got it. One end is really odd shaped as the surveyors had to go around one well as I wanted to have no part of an abandoned well on my property after talking with a government agent who works for that program. I forget what division he is under ? He also said sometimes they are better left alone as if messed with sometimes then it gets into the water table.

I'm no expert however have worked in the field in your area but mostly natural gas in NE.
Brine or salt water is generally the part of fracking fluids so if these wells were older and not fracked this is a smaller concern.
However wells now have to be protected from ground water and other contaminants. W.virg. and Pa. All production is monitored by DEP, EPA and a variety of other agencies and must be handled by licensed and certified operators. Production products are then hauled off site by regulated trucking or by pipeline the like of which costs millions in planning, approvals and construction. All operation has to be monitored by qualified individuals 3rd party. A 5 gallon spill is considered a reportable spill and will cost 100k+ per incident. 2 incidents will result in complete shut done. Storage is a whole other set of regulations.
Removal of product or waste from wellsite stays your responsibility until product is off loaded into purchasers facility and waste stays your responsibility for all perpetuity. I know this because I signed bills of lading for waste that's now in a landfill that a company man was supposed to sign. Dep informed me personally that because I signed it as individual and not an assigned agent of the company that if that waste contaminated anything else I was personally responsible even in the landfill. The company I worked remediated spills and perform site work.
This post would go on forever if I wrote about all of the stuff I saw in 8yrs. My point is that this industry just won't let us just grab a bucket of oil and use it or sell it.
Capped wells can be brought back to life, They must be cased further grouted but to renew the pressure mostly fracked. Workover rigs etc..
Hate to burst a bubble on your entrepreneurial spirit but the is a really large can of worms.
Best to you.