Montana foundation capping abandoned oil wells
OILMONT, Mont. (AP) — Curtis Shuck remembers a rush of emotions a few years ago when he came across his first “orphaned well” while walking through a field in the Kevin-Sunburst Oilfield.
Shuck, who was no stranger to oilfields, said he was there that day discussing grain with a farmer when they came across a well that had been abandoned.
“I had no idea that this was even a thing,” he said, noting he had more than 30 years of experience in the oil and gas business. “I just thought this was everybody’s dirty little secret.”
He recalls feeling amazed, embarrassed and appalled all at the same time. Shuck said he could not get the image out of his mind and felt it was incumbent upon him to do something about it. Shuck said he learned it’s a huge problem, not only in Montana, but in other parts of the country as well.
He started the Well Done Foundation, a nonprofit group that caps wells across the nation. He said the organization is “making an impact in Montana and across the U.S., one well at a time.”
“Every well is a victory and milestone,” he told the Independent Record newspaper in Helena.
In talking with that Toole County farmer in 2019, he learned the farmer owned the surface rights, but not the mineral rights. He said the farmer told him the mineral rights are stronger and the oil companies can come in and do what they want, leaving him “holding the bag.”
He said abandoned wells force farmers to dodge piles of oilfield trash left behind that have become wards of the state.
Well Done has plugged 14 holes so far, contracting with oil riggers and others to do the work. The first well was plugged on April 22 — Earth Day — in 2020.
Shuck said he learned of the impact the wells have on climate change, especially in terms...