Permanent Abandonment of Marginal Oil and Natural Gas Wells

Audit Analysis

A permanent well-abandonment methane avoidance project with a fundamentally sound design (no reversal risk, VVB-confirmed additionality, 5% buffer pool), but undermined by significant data-reliability issues including a three-fold discrepancy in the lifetime ex-ante estimate between the PDD and the validation report, a project-specific baseline, and an extensive list of initial documentation deficiencies (9 CARs, 11 CLs) that were subsequently resolved. The verified monitoring-period figure aligns closely with the PDD's pro-rata expectation, but the unresolved contradiction in the lifetime figure casts a shadow over the overall credit volume.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Lifetime ex-ante estimate differs by a factor of ~3 between the PDD (220,205 tCO2e) and the validation report (652,874 tCO2e), creating material uncertainty about the true credit volume
• ⚠A calculation error in baseline emissions was identified during validation and corrected, and project emissions from diesel/transport were initially omitted before being included in the final quantification
• ⚠Leakage justification is internally inconsistent within the validation report: described as 'quantified' in one section (2025-10-01) and 'deemed negligible' in another (2025-09-16), while the applied deduction is 0%
• ⚠Stakeholder consultation was limited to landowner agreements; formal community outreach was not conducted, and the ongoing consultation plan lacked a clear schedule

Credit Vintages