Methane Capture & Reclamation

More than 3.2 million wells in the US are abandoned, unplugged, and potentially leaking methane.

In addition to methane, a greenhouse gas responsible for 25% of the rise in global temperatures since the start of the Industrial Revolution, these wells emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that pose health dangers to nearby communities. Methane from unplugged wells may also infiltrate and pollute local groundwater supplies and soils.

Read our Protocol here.

The BCarbon Methane Capture and Reclamation (MCR) Protocol defines the technical approach to certifying carbon credits for the plugging of leaking abandoned & orphan oil and gas wells in the US and Canada. The process of receiving credits under this Protocol is summarized in the graphics below.

Application Material

The Methane Application Package is used to assemble a complete MCR application, and to calculate the number of credits a potential project may produce.

  • MCR Protocol

  • Document submission guidance

  • Letter of Intent (LOI)

  • Provisional Project Plan (PPP) template

  • Well Details spreadsheet template

  • Well Models spreadsheet template (Decline Curve Model, Leak Rate Model)

  • Credit Calculations spreadsheet template

  • Operator Attestation

  • Final Project Plan (FPP) template

Have questions?

By downloading the Methane Application Package, you will also gain access to the following supplementary documents:

  • Slides from our January 2024 MCR Webinar describing the credit calculation and application processes, as well as the implications of EPA’s 2023 methane rule on voluntary well plugging.

  • A submittal guidance (November 2023) with further information on how to correctly obtain and present the data required for a successful application.

  • A Technical Evaluation example (November 2023) based on the BCarbon MCR Protocol.

Please note that these supplementary documents were developed for Version 1.0 of the Protocol, which has been updated and is not the latest version. Therefore, some part of the presentations or guidance may be outdated. In case of doubt, please refer to the Protocol or get in touch with BCarbon.

Thanks to the BCarbon MCR Subcommittee and ALL Consulting for their contributions to the development of this Protocol.

Apply:

  1. Submit a Letter of Intent.

  2. Meet with BCarbon for pre-consultation.

  3. Fill out the documents required for an application: Download the Methane Application Package

Every project will need to comply with the following technical steps to be successful.

Sources/further reading: Reuters; NASA; DiGiulio et al 2023; Johnston et al. 2020; Buto et al. 2010; McMahon et al. 2018