Caylee Jean Hong

CAYLEE HONG, then a graduate student at University of California, Berkeley, California, received funding in October 2021 to aid research on “Orphaned Wells: The Impact of Corporate Bankruptcy on Oil and Gas Infrastructures and Municipal Futures in California,” supervised by Dr. James Holston. This project examines the long-term impacts of urban oil production in the Los Angeles Basin and specifically the challenges to decommissioning oil and gas wells in Los Angeles and Long Beach. The research examined how diverse urban stakeholders, including city officials, residents, and oil interest holders navigate and plan for decommissioning in light of the climate crisis and the anticipated decline of California’s oil and gas sector. Of particular concern were bankruptcies in the oil and gas sector, which threaten to “orphan” wells, leaving them without owners or operators to pay for decommissioning. Across the United States, nearly 57,000 orphan wells already exist but the total number could be as high as 746,000 (Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, 2019). In California, 5,540 wells lack a “viable operator” or are at a “high risk of becoming orphaned in the near future” (California Council on Science and Technology, 2018). Oil and gas wells in cities are especially prone to desertion since they are significantly more expensive to decommission, pose elevated health and safety hazards, and thus constitute — as a source of municipal funding as well as a major liability — a financial risk for cities.