Curtis Shuck understands oil and gas development. His background from working first hand with commodities, supply chain and an actual Port of imports exports literally has given him a fast track to capping abandoned wells.
Shuck is the Chairman of the Board for the Well Done Foundation.
Orphaned” wells are those for which no former owner or operator can be located, while the term “abandoned well” typically refers to an unproductive well with a known owner/operator. In either case, the wells remain uncapped and there are millions across the United States.
Shuck has been working on this issue for years and over the past couple of years he has found his lane and is seeing amazing growth in awareness, sponsorships and capping wells.
In this interview Shuck is fresh of capping a well that ended up being about 70-feet from a residential home. He is one his way out to Bradford, PA for his next trip. Bradford is close to Titusville, which is known to many as the birthplace of the American oil industry.
The interview also dives into the ESG chatter and what is important to note and what is still questionable. The two discuss the bottom line profit centers surrounding ESG and capping wells.
Shuck also notes their foundation has not accepted one dollar from the tax payers. It is all industry supported.
About the Well Done Foundation
The Well Done Foundation is the brainchild of Curtis Shuck, a Montanan with three decades of experience in the oil and gas industry, who was working in the northern portion of the state when he noticed abandoned oil wells scattered across the landscape. Since that moment, he’s made it his mission to plug these wells and restore the surface area, thereby curtailing (permanently eliminating) their carbon and methane emissions. The WDF’s pilot project is in Montana’s Golden Triangle Region, home to some of the richest soil and most productive growing acres in the United States. And the Well Done Foundation’s plan is to plug all the orphan wells in Montana—with other states to follow, chipping away at the 3.2 million more scattered throughout the US and Canada.
Founded in 2019, the Well Done Foundation (WDF) is structured as a 501c3, relying on donations and the sale of carbon offsets (Climate Benefit Units) to fund awareness, plugging and land-resurfacing work necessitated by orphaned oil and gas wells.
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Sponsors, Music and Other Show Notes
Studio Sponsor: The Industrial Forest
The Industrial Forest is a network of environmentally minded and socially conscious businesses that are using industrial innovations to build a network of sustainable forests across the United States.
Weekly Sponsor: American Directional Driller
Especially designed for the American Directional Driller® to measure bottom hole assembly equipment up to 40 feet. As of release, this product is unmatched in the marketplace. This heavy-duty 40-foot tape measure has three measurement scales on an extra wide blade.
Both engineering scale (decimal feet) and imperial scale (inches / feet) are shown on the top side of the blade. The reverse side of the blade is metric for expat or international mobile assignments. There are 12.2 meters shown as 1,220 centimeters with highlighted markings every decimeter and meter. The smallest measurement unit shown is 100ths of feet, 16ths of inches, and 1 millimeter. This tape measure is Class II.
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Weekly Sponsor: MineralTracker
MineralTracker is the only mineral management software that allows mineral owners to compare actual royalty payments to expected payments based on well performance and a proprietary, Bakken-specific reservoir model built by MineralTracker’s petroleum engineers.
MineralTracker was formed in Watford City, North Dakota, and is a subsidiary of First International Bank & Trust, a family-owned bank also based in Watford City.
Phone Line Sponsor: Swan Energy, Inc. 866.539.0860
Studio Email and Inbox Sponsor: To Be Announced
Featured Music: Moody River Band
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