Considering a Federal Program to Permanently Plug and Abandon Offshore Oil and Gas Wells
Columbia | School of International and Public Affairs
Center on Global Energy Policy
Mark Agerton, University of California-Davis Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics and nonresident scholar at the Center for Energy Studies housed at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy
Siddhartha Narra, Research Associate, LSU Center for Energy Studies
Brian Snyder, Associate Professor, LSU Department of Environmental Sciences
Gregory B. Upton, Jr., (corresponding author), Associate Professor - Research, LSU
Center for Energy Studies
Part of an oil and gas research initiative at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, this report examines offshore plugging and abandoning (P&A) liabilities. The research is meant to provide guidance to federal policy makers during the formulation of P&A programs. Objectives include 1) reducing taxpayers’ future financial P&A liability for orphan wells, 2) reducing environmental risk, and 3) preserving or increasing employment alongside goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally.