Methane projects
United States
Methane plays dirty.
We're fighting back.
Tradewater identifies and plugs orphaned oil and gas wells actively leaking methane with no solvent owner. Funded by high-integrity carbon credits, we stop harmful emissions in their tracks while also creating health, safety, and economic benefits for the community.
It’s quite a common
problem all over the
United States.
Wayne Wiltshire’s family owns a farm in Southern Illinois. His parents permitted an oil and gas company to drill on their land. They drilled the well and one day never came back.
Tradewater worked with Wayne, county officials, and local contractors to plug the well and restore the land – at no cost to him and his family.
Wayne is not alone.
He is just one landowner among hundreds of thousands across the United States facing a multitude of harmful effects from wells actively leaking methane and potentially other hazardous gases. With federal funds projected to cover just a small percentage of these high-emission wells, Tradewater is committed to closing the gap through private climate finance.
Learn more about Wayne’s story here.
The problem:
Methane is a heavyweight polluter,
leaking from forgotten oil and gas wells
The solution:
Sealing the deal
Methane mitigation is a force multiplier for climate action
By preventing methane from entering the atmosphere, we reduce the rate at which the planet is heating up exponentially — more quickly and cost-effectively than any other climate strategy. The benefits of permanently plugging wells are also multiplied:
Improves air, soil, and water quality
Measurable social and economic value supporting local communities
Restored safety for landowners
The opportunity for impact runs deep
Our verified process
Step 1: Identify and qualify
Determine if methane emissions are actively leaking from the well and that no other funding exists to plug.
Step 2: Measure and evaluate
Follow a rigorous, science-backed methodology of collecting direct pre-plugging measurements or conservative volumetric analysis to quantify potential to emit.
Step 3: Plug and verify
Permanently plug the well for immediate impact. Verify the project with a trusted registry to secure high-integrity carbon credits.
Step 4: Restore
Remediate the land for productive use and restore peace of mind for landowners and neighbors.
Tradewater is committed to continuous improvement and scientific integrity. We began developing our projects under the first-of-its-kind ACR Orphaned Oil and Gas (OOG) methodology, which created a pathway for addressing emissions from leaking orphaned wells and opened the door for project developers like Tradewater to invest in reducing these uncontrolled and ongoing sources of methane.
Since ACR published its methodology, new research and learnings have strengthened approaches for estimating methane emissions from orphaned wells. We’ve incorporated these advancements to enhance rigor. Our approach draws on the study published by the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines: A Study of Terminal Decline Rates of Oil & Gas Wells (Handler et al., Payne Institute, Colorado School of Mines, June 2025). Analyzing 14,000 onshore wells, the study showed that applying an annual terminal decline rate to current methane emissions is a sound and conservative approach to projecting future emissions from orphaned wells.
Tradewater found the Payne Institute’s analysis persuasive and has applied the relevant decline rates to the three projects we developed under ACR. We will continue to do so moving forward. To ensure the highest integrity, Tradewater retroactively retired credits in June, July, and September of 2025, and will now only sell credits that reflect the calculation after application of the decline curve. This proactive step reinforces the credibility of our projects and reflects our unwavering commitment to responsible climate action. We have also worked to develop the “Plugging Orphaned Oil and Gas Wells” methodology through Oneshot’s Open Carbon Protocol’s which accounts for the impacts of this research providing rigorous tools for accounting, verification, and reporting of carbon removal and emissions reductions.
These solutions deliver high-integrity, low-risk credits. Plugging orphaned OOG wells is one of the most direct and effective ways to combat climate change. Your support helps us scale these critical efforts with the highest levels of transparency, scientific rigor, and measurable impact.
Accelerating our impact
1.66
million tonnes of CO2e avoided
through U.S. methane projects
More than 141,000 orphaned oil and gas wells have been documented across the United States. Hundreds of thousands more remain undocumented. Our methane projects, supported by private climate finance, fill the gap in federal funds to plug these wells permanently and additionally. We are just getting started.
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Project Details
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Project location
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United States of America
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Project type
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Carbon avoidance
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Registry
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ACR
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OneShot
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Years active
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2023-ongoing
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Batch
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Batch ID
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Vintage
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Tons of CO2e
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Verifier
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Project Documents
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01
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2023, 2024
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457,725
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GHD
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||||
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02
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2024
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813,632
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GHD
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||||
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03
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2025
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270,700
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GHD
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||||
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04
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2026
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115,595
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GHD
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Together, we can do even more.
Amplify your action today.
Join the individuals and businesses taking real climate action to stop methane at its source and invest in one of the most impactful climate solutions today.
