by Zachary R. Mider and Rachel Adams-Heard, Bloomberg Green, Oct. 12, 2021.<\/p>\n
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Hutson is the founder and chief executive officer of one of the strangest companies ever to hit the American oil patch and the reason for our four-day visit to the Appalachian region. While other oilmen focus on drilling the next gusher, Hutson buys used wells that generate just a trickle or nothing at all. Over the past four years his Diversified Energy Co.<\/a> ha<\/span>s amassed about 69,000 wells, eclipsing Exxon Mobil Corp.<\/a> to<\/span> become the largest well owner in the country. Investors love him. Since listing shares in 2017, Hutson\u2019s company has outperformed almost every other U.S. oil and gas stock, swelling his personal stake to more than $30 million.<\/p>\n But Diversified\u2019s breakneck growth has alarmed some regulators, landowner groups, and industry insiders, not to mention environmental advocates. State laws require that every well be plugged with cement after it runs dry, an expensive and complicated chore. At the rate Diversified is paying dividends to shareholders, some worry there will be nothing left when the bills come due. If a company can\u2019t meet its plugging obligations, that burden falls to the state, which means Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia could be stuck with a billion-dollar mess. \u201cThe model seems like it\u2019s built on abandoning those assets,\u201d says Ted Boettner, who\u2019s studied abandoned wells<\/a> at the Ohio River Valley Institute, a regional research organization. \u201cIt looks like a liability bomb that\u2019s destined to explode.\u201d<\/p>\n