27,000 Abandoned Oil, Gas Wells May Be Leaking in Gulf of Mexico

The BP Gulf spill has no doubt brought plenty of scrutiny and debate to the practice of offshore drilling. But it still manages to be shocking when a figure like this emerges: according to an AP report, there are a staggering 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells throughout the Gulf of Mexico -- and nobody is sure whether or not they're continuously leaking oil or not.

The AP reports that

More than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells lurk in the hard rock beneath the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental minefield that has been ignored for decades. No one -- not industry, not government -- is checking to see if they are leaking, an Associated Press investigation shows.

The oldest of these wells were abandoned in the late 1940s, raising the prospect that many deteriorating sealing jobs are already failing.