FAQ

ClimateWells is a high-integrity carbon credit project developer focused on tackling methane emissions and creating energy transition jobs across the United States.

Our projects help small operators of old, marginal oil wells shut them down sooner, cutting methane and CO₂ emissions. Each project produces jobs for engineers, administrators, truckers and transportation workers, specialists in cementing and welding, and a variety of other skilled individuals. 

When we stop these emissions, we create carbon credits that help corporations and individuals reach their climate goals. Our projects store emissions permanently, keeping everything underground for centuries. And every project is independently verified and registered to ensure a real and tangible impact.

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We want to be part of a corporation’s overall climate and energy transition strategy.

We offer businesses that already prioritize climate action a way to align their climate goals with their community goals. A utility can earn credits by decommissioning oil and gas wells locally, in the communities it serves. An auto manufacturer can decommission wells in and around its headquarters or assembly plants. A bank can decommission wells in every state where it has branches.

There are a lot of ways to reduce or remove emissions. After listening to climate experts and pioneering corporations, we prioritized what matters most.

First, we’re simpler. We reduce emissions by preventing them at the source. We keep greenhouse gases in the ground before they become a climate threat.

Second, we focus on methane, a greenhouse gas much more potent than CO₂. 

Third, our national database of oil and gas emissions allows the customers who buy our credits to prioritize and localize where they can make the greatest impact. Most carbon credits are a generic commodity that helps the broader climate fight. ClimateWells projects provide genuine climate and local community benefits for the customers of the businesses we partner with. Because old wells also cause local air and water problems, our clients’ climate strategies can directly benefit the health of their own communities.

More than two million oil and gas wells stretch across the nation, and roughly half of them are low-producing, high-emitting wells.

ClimateWells produced the country’s most advanced database of U.S. oil and gas wells, which allows us to prioritize marginal wells located in our customers’ priority regions. We target old oilfields in urban areas and frontline communities. We target wells near schools and homes. If we can decommission these low-production sites 5, 10 or 20 years before they're required to be shut down, we can meaningfully reduce methane and improve air and water quality for nearby residents.

ClimateWells leverages open-source models that are regularly updated with new, high quality climate data.

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RMI, The Rocky Mountain Institute, the leading think-tank on oil and gas emissions, owns and runs an oil and gas emissions quantification tool called The Oil Climate Index (OCI+). This set of emissions models covers over 80% of global production and helps us enumerate the emission reduction developed through any one of our projects. In conjunction with the other peer-reviewed sections of our public methodology, OCI+ includes upstream, midstream, and downstream emissions.

We are focused on “marginal” wells because they produce very little oil and gas for their owners but emit a great deal of methane into the atmosphere.

Most of these wells were drilled by operators that are no longer around and are currently owned by small companies who have inherited massive cleanup liabilities.

Owners of marginal wells often keep operating them not because they are hugely profitable but because shutting them down – a legal requirement when a well stops producing – is cost-prohibitive. In many cases, ClimateWells can cover all or part of the decommissioning costs if the operator is willing to forgo future production.

This is good for taxpayers, too. If the operator goes bankrupt - which happens frequently - the well is considered “orphaned” which becomes a taxpayer burden. ClimateWells cuts emissions today and prevents taxpayer problems tomorrow.

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A significant part of the global energy transition is dealing with 150 years of existing fossil fuel energy infrastructure.

As oil and gas wells age, their emissions increase. In fact, the emissions intensity of an oil well doubles every 25 years. At a certain point, the emissions are so great they outweigh any value created by the low and decreasing energy production. That’s where we come in. 

Over 46% of global climate emissions come from oil and gas. Historically, there hasn’t been a way to cut these emissions without threatening the energy we so desperately need. ClimateWells combines job creation, methane removal, and an economic opportunity for small energy businesses.

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Many cities were built on top of oil and gas fields.

Oil and gas wells can have a significant impact locally. Methane emissions, volatile organic compounds, and particulate matter – all bi-products of the production of these old wells –- pose short- and long-term health risks. Moreover, legacy oil and gas fields require industrial infrastructure, access roads, and other equipment that can degrade the appearance of and access to an area. When we decommission a well, we also restore the area to its natural state.

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These projects have natural advantages is verifiability.

ClimateWells works with each state’s natural resources department to certify the plugging of a well or field of wells. This certification involves regulators on-site during and after decommissioning as well as emissions measurement and ongoing monitoring.