The Allen #033, a Legacy Orphan Oil Well in Toole County, Montana was drilled in June of 1930, by Big West Oil Company and supported the local Refinery for years.
This well became an Orphan in the early 1990’s when the last operator, Cavalier Petroleum, went out of business and the well formally became the responsibility of the State of Montana where it had sat idle and emitting harmful greenhouse gases.
The Well Done Foundation identified the Allen #033 Well in January of 2020 as a possible candidate of for their adoption program and began monitoring emission factors of >651,000 ppm of CH4 (methane gas). Well Done entered into a Right of Entry with the Surface Owners and formally adopted the well by filing a Bond and Change of Operator with the Montana Board of Oil & Gas Conservation (MBOGC) on April 8, 2022.
Measurement instrumentation was placed at the well and the protocolled testing began with the intent to collect and record data in 2021 while preparing the Plugging, Abandonment & Restoration Program (PAR) Plan for review and approval of the MBOGC. This well is generously sponsored in part by the Montana Environmental Information Center, and many other Well Done Foundation donors. The Allen #033 is scheduled to be plugged beginning late July 2024 by a local Service Company and the work is being approved by the Montana Board of Oil & Gas Conservation. The surface restoration will be completed this summer and WDF post-closure monitoring will continue annually for ten years.
We invite and encourage everyone to help and sponsor this well by clicking the link below to Plug Wells. Plugging this well will eliminate massive amount of green house gases, and will make the local air, water and soil safer.
Plugging these wells is essential to protecting our planet and the impact is immediate. Donate to Well Done Foundation and help us fight climate change.
Help us plug CO2e and methane-leaking oil and gas wells, and to cleaning up communities. Click here to learn more.