Guardian Plug & Abandonment

Abandoned oil and gas wells may seem like relics of the past, but they’re quietly leaking one of the most potent greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. Over 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in trapping heat, methane, the primary component of natural gas, makes these wells a critical focus in the fight against climate change and a major factor in the carbon credit economy. Guardian Plug & Abandonment is advancing this effort by permanently plugging high-risk wells, quantifying avoided emissions and developing carbon credit projects by documenting and validating these reductions.

Numerous gas-leaking wells remain unplugged across the U.S. due to limited enforcement and financial bonding requirements. In many cases, operators abandon their liabilities, leaving the burden of clean-up to local agencies with limited funding and resources to get wells plugged and sites cleaned up. For this reason, there are hundreds of thousands of unplugged and idle wells across the nation.

Guardian Plug & Abandonment primarily works with two recognized registries—CarbonPath and BCarbon. Its methodologies quantify emissions reductions from voluntarily plugging wells. The volume of gas that would otherwise escape is converted to carbon-dioxide-equivalent (CO2e) emissions reductions after the wells are plugged with multiple cement and mechanical plugs within the wellbore.

“We’re able to get these wells plugged decades ahead of schedule and stop emissions early, leading to positive climate action,” says Michael Goodman, General Manager.
Each initiative starts with close coordination that involves small operators seeking to plug aging liabilities and landowners reclaiming unproductive land. Surface infrastructure is also cleared, and the land is graded to the landowner’s specifications, leaving the land available for future use. Once the well is sealed and the impact of the emissions is verified, the company sells the resulting carbon credits, offering buyers a transparent and measurable way to support methane reduction. To date, the company has plugged nine wells and generated hundreds of thousands of CO2e credits.

For clients with active wells, the CarbonPath methodology is utilized, which calculates emissions that would have occurred if the remaining hydrocarbons in the wellbore were extracted and combusted. Guardian Plug & Abandonment works with operators to assess reserves, quantify offsets, plug wells and restore the land. Guardian Plug & Abandonment’s first project with CarbonPath generated several thousand credits after working with a small oil and gas operator to halt production early.

For idle wells that are no longer producing but still pose an environmental risk, Guardian Plug & Abandonment applies the BCarbon methodology. It evaluates four years of production history, applies a decline curve analysis and inputs the results into a leak rate model to forecast emissions capable of occurring over the next twenty years. As a leading project developer in the space, Guardian Plug & Abandonment knows how to design highly effective projects with substantial positive environmental impact.

The Rice Ranch project in the Dallas–Fort Worth area was only possible with the BCarbon methodology. The landowner had his home proximal to a large well pad with four leaking wells and a compressor station that had been inactive. The company confirmed the site’s emissions profile and signed agreements with the landowner and operator. The team registered the project with BCarbon, got it approved, plugged the wells, removed the compressor and tanks, restored the land as requested and had the project third-party validated, which resulted in producing significant carbon credits and a happy landowner.

Driving its success is a leadership team with over a century of oil and gas experience. CEO David Fletcher has led offshore plugging operations for Shell in the Gulf and managed high-pressure wells for over 40 years. Lenny Scelfo, operations manager, brings decades of field and facility expertise, while Michael Goodman, P.G., in-house geologist, leads carbon credit efforts as a subject matter expert in registry compliance and emissions modeling.

Guardian Plug & Abandonment is a testament to how field-tested execution can bring structure and credibility to voluntary carbon markets. By aligning operational rigor with transparent methodologies, it offers a scalable model for methane reduction.