The Gulf of Mexico is full of unused oil and gas wells, and it could cost a fortune to clean them up. Non-producing oil and gas wells in the Gulf will cost a staggering $30 billion to safely plug and abandon, according to a new study published in Nature Energy. It identified about 14,000 such wells, the majority of which have been idle for at least five years, making them unlikely to go back into production. Of these, about 7,300 wells are in federal waters, which will cost around $28.7 billion to plug. The remaining wells are located in the state waters of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.
News article on 23 May 2023 from nrdc.org
For further reading, please visit nrdc.org>> Study Shows 14,000 Unplugged Oil and Gas Wells in Gulf of Mexico