Orphan and Idle Wells in Louisiana
Gregory B. Upton Jr., LSU Center for Energy Studies; Mark Agerton, UC Davis Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics; Ipsita Gupta, LSU Department of Petroleum Engineering; Kanchan Maiti, LSU Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences; Siddhartha Narra, LSU Center for Energy Studies; Brian Snyder, LSU Department of Environmental Sciences; and Joanna Walker, LSU Center for Energy Studies, have co-authored a report titled "Orphan and Idle Wells in Louisiana," published in July 2025.
Researchers at LSU were tasked by the Louisiana Department of Energy and Natural Resources (DENR) to estimate plugging costs and assess methane emissions from orphan wells as part of the state's Oilfield Site Restoration (OSR) Program, augmented by federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) funding. This report provides an analysis of Louisiana's orphan and idle oil and gas wells, examining plugging costs, methane emissions, and economic impacts.
Key findings reveal that while most of Louisiana's oil and gas wells are either producing or properly plugged and abandoned, approximately 19,500 idle wells and 4,900 orphan wells remain to be addressed as of March 2025. The rate of new orphan well additions has outpaced plugging activities in recent years, with wells drilled in the past decade still being added to the orphan list, indicating this extends beyond legacy issues.
The estimated cost to plug and abandon orphan and idle wells in Louisiana's Monroe and Shreveport districts is approximately $860 million, and Lafayette district, which contains roughly 41% of the state's orphan and idle wells would increase total costs. Methane emissions measurements show significant variation, with contractors detecting methane at 23% of wells using Hi-Flow measurement technique and LSU researchers detecting emissions at 96% of wells using more sensitive chamber methods. The analysis estimates that the initial $25 million federal grant supported approximately 120 jobs and generated $16.4 million in value added to the state's economy. Potential methane abatement from plugging all orphan wells in northern Louisiana is estimated at 868 to 1,171 tons of methane per year, which exceeds the estimates derived from EPA emission factors.
Read the report here.