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Before an abandoned oil or gas well can be remediated or repurposed, it must be identified consistently within records that were collected for different purposes. Brian A. Varela and Marc L. Buursink develop a technical approach to that problem using well and production data.
The report distinguishes abandonment from related terms such as orphaned, shut-in, and nonproducing. It explains how regulatory differences, variable data sources, gaps in recorded production, and incomplete well histories complicate the construction of inventories. The authors analyse production interruptions and present a method for separating active and abandoned wells on the basis of the available information.
This concise, complete 2025 report includes the proposed definition, its data considerations, a procedural flow chart, conclusions, and references. It is intended for readers interested in energy infrastructure, environmental inventories, and the practical work of making administrative and technical records comparable.
Brian A. Varela; Marc L. Buursink. Methodology for Defining and Compiling Abandoned and Active Hydrocarbon Well Inventories. U.S. Geological Survey, 2025. https://doi.org/10.3133/sir20255030. Public domain U.S. Government publication. Original agency, author and photograph credits retained.