Exactly. If wells were simply capped as many think of the term, our aquifers would be severely contaminated with leaked crude oil
I never want to come across as condescending, but at soon as someone here refers to “capped” oil wells, you might as well quit reading because they’re just spouting off about something they know nothing about.
The only reason for plugging or abandoning an oil well is because it’s no longer producing enough oil to make a profit. It’s true that at today’s prices, the amount of oil it must produce is less to be profitable, but it’s simply not the case that you can “uncap” an oil well and start counting the profit.
There’s a huge upfront investment to that, and I don’t know of anyone who has thought it made good sense to re-enter a well that can make only three barrels of oil a day.
Keep in mind that these wells are also likely to be producing hundreds of barrels of water a day in addition. That’s not fresh water you can just pour on the ground. It’s contaminated water or salt water, and you have to pay to have someone truck it off and inject it into a disposal well. Not cheap.