In recent years, Schuyler Wight has noticed a growing number of abandoned oil wells coming back to life, gurgling fluids to the surface of his West Texas ranch. Last week he found the biggest one yet.
Gassy water was gushing from the ground and down a quarter mile of roadway before it drained into a pasture on a remote corner of his land.
“It’s by far flowing more than any other,” Wight said. “It’s getting worse, there’s no question about that.”
It’s the latest in a string of mysterious water features in the arid Permian Basin, the nation’s top producing oil field, that regulators have been unable to explain.
Last year, an eruption of salty water swamped several acres on Wight’s cousin’s ranch, triggering a multi-million-dollar cleanup. In 2022, a geyser shot up from a well in Crane County, then another spouted on the Antina Cattle Ranch. Nearby, a large pond of gassy groundwater has become a permanent feature called Boehmer Lake.
Texas’ oilfield regulator, the Texas Railroad Commission, has yet to offer an explanation for what is driving so much water to the surface. After the massive cleanup effort in January, an agency press release said it was “continuing to investigate” the cause. The Railroad Commission did not immediately respond to a query.
Wight, a fourth generation West Texas rancher, has watched this problem grow for years. He said the RRC has plugged about ten old wells leaking onto the surface of his property. But each time they do, another one starts flowing.
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