Before they could start the cementing process, her team had to drill out the previous plug. It was a weekslong process, the noisy drill pushing further into the earth one 30-foot section at a time.

Before they could start the cementing process, her team had to drill out the previous plug. It was a weekslong process, the noisy drill pushing further into the earth one 30-foot section at a time.

California’s effort to plug abandoned, chemical-spewing oil wells gets $35-million boost Students walk past an active oil drilling field in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles in September.

But decades of drilling has left behind more than 14,000 old, unplugged wells at risk of springing dangerous leaks and spills that may cost more than $30 billion to plug, a new study has found.

Maria Burns watched with satisfaction as a three-story-high drilling rig made a ... But in Texas, the heart of the U.S. oil industry, it's only 1.5%. Loading... To the extent that oil companies remain ...