Zefiro Methane, a US-based private methane offsets originator, has purchased a majority ownership stake in oil well plugging company Plants & Goodwin (P&G).
Zefiro, led by former JP Morgan employees from the carbon market team, aims to lower methane emissions by plugging orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells. The business creates offsets for methane emissions, also known as carbon offset credits.
Pennsylvania-based P&G has been offering services to plug orphaned oil and gas wells for more than five decades.
The family owned company primarily focuses on idle wells in shale and sandstone formations across the Appalachian Basin.
With the Zefiro purchase, Luke Plants will succeed his father, Steve, as P&G’s CEO.
Steve Plants will continue to work for P&G as president of abandonment operations.
The financial and other terms of the deal to buy P&G, which employs around 100 people, have not been revealed.
Commenting on the deal, Steve Plants said: “Our family has been plugging wells for more than 50 years and our partnership with Zefiro is a game changer for finally bringing about a large-scale, nationwide solution to methane emissions from abandoned wells.”
Luke Plants commented: “Public concern and awareness about the health and environmental implications of orphaned oil and gas wells is at an all-time high. And with the federal government behind a solution and the support of Zefiro, we will be among the first to tackle the problem and take our experience and lessons learned to other basins across the US.”
Zefiro founder and chairman Talal Debs said: “Zefiro’s strategy is to integrate real (physical process) innovation with new forms of capital, through the ‘environmental’ credit markets; the result will be a new kind of enterprise.
“By enlisting veteran operators like Plants & Goodwin, we are taking the first big step to making our unique vision a reality.”
