North American environmental services firm Zefiro Methane has supported the development of carbon registry Isometric‘s new Orphaned Well Plugging (OWP) Protocol, covering oil and gas well-plugging operations across the United States and Canada.

Isometric released the draft methodology on October 15, 2026, initiating a 30-day public consultation phase set to close on November 14, 2026. Zefiro served as an external technical contributor alongside two other developers, providing field data, land management expertise, and empirical operational input from its well-plugging activities.

The methodology addresses non-CO2 greenhouse gas abatement from orphaned hydrocarbon wells that lack active operators and are excluded from publicly funded remediation programs.

To establish high-integrity offset generation, the draft OWP Protocol sets out strict measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) parameters aimed at institutional buyers:

Finalization of the OWP Protocol will allow Zefiro to resume originating and commercializing methane abatement credits. The company previously completed offset transactions under the American Carbon Registry framework with buyers including Mercuria Energy America and EDF Trading.

The carbon offset stream will operate incrementally to Zefiro’s core well-remediation service business, which reported fiscal 2026 revenues of $42.5 million (ended June 30, 2026), a 31.1% year-over-year increase.

“Zefiro helped demonstrate that institutional buyers will pay for methane reductions from plugged orphaned wells, and we are pleased to support Isometric’s work on a protocol grounded in direct field measurement,” said Catherine Flax, Chief Executive Officer of Zefiro. 

“For our shareholders, the opportunity is additive.

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