There are still other ways to pick up clues for lost wells. Planes with laser systems known as LIDAR can image the ground. Thermal cameras can point toward hidden leaks. CATALOG members are even developing an app that uses a smartphone’s magnetometer to search for wells.

“The right way to attack this problem is a multi-layer approach,” said Ciulla. “We can layer the information from all these different sources almost as if it were a cake. I can give my contribution with historical maps, someone else can do computations for historical oil production, others bring images or satellites or sensor data. It’s a beautiful mix of the old and the new, and I’m fascinated that maps, something that seems so old-fashioned and static, can give us so much useful information if correctly used with the help of current technology.”

CATALOG’s work to build up tools to curb methane emissions and hazards from undocumented orphaned wells is ongoing.

“We, as a society, really like energy,” Biraud said. “But we need to find solutions that limit our emissions. And working with local stakeholders like Native American tribes, the U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. National Parks Service, we’re seeing that this is one way we can have an impact.”

The mapping AI tool used resources provided by the Department of Energy’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), a DOE Office of Science user facility.

This work was supported as part of the Consortium Advancing Technology for Assessment of Lost Oil & Gas, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, Office of Resource Sustainability, Methane Mitigation Technologies Division’s Undocumented Orphan Wells Program.

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