Appalachia
Where the Oil and Gas Industry Began

Commercial oil and gas development began in the mid-1800's with the drilling of the Drake Well in western Pennsylvania.  The demand for oil increased when the automobile industry boomed in the early 1900's, leading to wildcat oil prospectors to cover vast areas of Appalachia with rigs, in hopes of striking it rich.  Subsequent world wars and the need for petroleum products in manufacturing only increased consumers appetite for oil, causing more wells to be drilled.  Oil and gas development remained largely unregulated until the mid-seventies when federal and state governments formed environmental protection bureaus.  

Unproductive oil and gas wells were largely abandoned, and due to the lack of records during this period in history, the wells were often orphaned.  With no means to trace previous well ownership for the proper plugging and abandonment of these wells, thousands of orphaned and abandoned wells remain open to the atmosphere, emitting fugitive methane into the air.   Lotus Key Energy is committed to minimizing the oil and gas industry's pre-1980  environmental impacts in the Appalachian Basin through the proper plugging of orphaned and abandoned wells.