oil well

The driller responsible for it, Patton Exploration, solicited companies to extend a pipeline to the oil well to capture the gas and evaluated whether the gas could be used to mine bitcoin.

When an oil well comes to the end of its life, its operator has a responsibility to permanently decommission it.

"In an oil and gas field, high resolution could be the difference between isolating the methane emissions from an oil well head from an adjacent pipeline," he says.

In June the UK Supreme Court ruled in a separate case, involving plans to drill an oil well near London's Gatwick Airport, that both types of emissions should be included in an environmental impact assessment.

“If a company is drilling for oil in California, they should be responsible for cleaning and closing that oil well,” she said.