Government: Oil and gas companies must plug idle wells

KENNER, La. – The Obama administration moved to head off another catastrophic leak like the BP disaster Wednesday, ordering oil and gas companies in the Gulf of Mexico to plug or dismantle thousands of wells and platforms no longer in use.

The move came as the government’s point man for the oil spill said BP’s blown-out well should be pronounced dead by Sunday.

In Washington, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar issued an order requiring oil and gas companies to plug nearly 3,500 nonproducing wells and dismantle about 650 production platforms that are longer being used.

The threat posed by the wells was detailed earlier this summer in an Associated Press investigation. The Gulf has more than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells and more than 1,200 idle rigs and platforms, and AP found that many of the wells have been ignored for decades, with no one checking for leaks.

Under the order, operators must plug wells that have been inactive for the past five years. Platforms and pipelines that are not being used for production or exploration must be decommissioned, even if the leases are still active. Current federal regulations require idle structures to be decommissioned – a process that involves plugging wells and dismantling and removing equipment – within one year of the lease’s expiration date.

Meanwhile, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government official overseeing the crisis in the Gulf, said the relief well BP has been drilling all summer long should intersect the ruptured well within 24 hours. He said mud and cement will then be pumped in, sealing the hole once and for all by Sunday.

“We are within a 96-hour window of killing the well,” Allen said. As of Wednesday morning, crews had only 20 feet left to drill.