Oklahoma Puts Limits on [Underground Disposal Wells] to Fight Earthquakes

"Facing a six-year barrage of increasingly large earthquakes, Oklahoma regulators are effectively ordering the state’s powerful oil-and-gas industry to substantially cut back the underground disposal of industry wastes that have caused the tremors across the state. On Monday, the state Corporation Commission asked well operators in a Connecticut-size patch of central Oklahoma to reduce by 40 percent the amount of oil and gas wastes they are injecting deep into the earth. The directive covers 411 injection wells in a rough circle that includes Oklahoma City and points northeast. ...

[The actions] are an equally notable challenge to the industry, which will most likely be able to make the cutbacks only by reducing oil and gas production. The liquid wastes are a byproduct of pumping oil and gas, and the more that is drawn from the ground, the more wastes must be disposed of. ...

In 2010, when the tremors began, Oklahoma recorded three earthquakes at or above a magnitude of 3. Last year, it had 907.

... the political leadership was not jolted into action until January, after a series of small earthquakes damaged homes and interrupted power in Edmond, an Oklahoma City suburb home to many in the state’s political and financial elite."

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/08/us/oklahoma-earthquakes-oil-gas-w...

Related NewsOK article: http://newsok.com/article/5483337

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by paleface on March 7, 2016 at 10:23pm
Permalink Reply by craig on March 8, 2016 at 7:55am

Paul, Obviously you haven't been paying attention to your critics along the rutted road you travel.

Your Title is 100% not true. They did no such thing to gas and oil well drilling.

They did put limits on the disposal wells.

Wake up to reality, if it is still possible for you.

Permalink Reply by Barry D on March 8, 2016 at 11:57am

craig,

It isn't possible. The only reality the anti environmental left knows is a distorted one. I believe psychosis is the term.

Perhaps stronger meds are in order.

Permalink Reply by Barry D on March 8, 2016 at 12:04pm

"...I'll see reality as before...", quoth Chicken Little;

                         Nevermore

Permalink Reply by Paul Heckbert on March 8, 2016 at 9:07pm

A few points:

You don't see my title any more, because the website editor altered it (without asking me).

You might want to ask the website editor if he or she has altered your words, also.

I cut and pasted the title from the newspaper article. You might want to take up your complaint with the New York Times writer.

As the article points out "[The actions] are an equally notable challenge to the industry, which will most likely be able to make the cutbacks only by reducing oil and gas production." So even though the 40% reduction is on injection wells, not extraction wells, it might affect both.

Perhaps the NYTimes title should have been "Oklahoma Requests Limits on Oil and Gas Waste Injection Wells to Fight Quakes". That's kind of a long, though.

Permalink Reply by Barry D on March 8, 2016 at 11:55am

If this isn't a Chicken Little story, then I don't know one.

You have to love fracktivists; they can't just tell a story. They always have to embellish it i.e.

"...a six year barrage of increasingly large earthquakes."

First, earthquakes are common to certain ares of OK.

Second - not all of the earthquakes are associated with the oil and gas industry.

Third - Large? A 3 point earthquake is large? I know some people in CA and other earthquake prone ares that would laugh at that assertion.

Exaggeration is one of the main tools of the environmental whackos.

Finally, the industry is already dealing with the amount of water needing to be disposed of. Through various means "frac water" is reused thus reducing the need to dispose of the water. The industry is also researching medium other than water for use in hydraulic fracturing.

Chicken Little strikes again. Ok, nothing to see here, move along

The Sky Is Falling!  The Sky Is Falling!

Permalink Reply by Jack Young on March 8, 2016 at 2:09pm

Interestingly, there are some folks at Stanford who have been working on ways to use injection wells to generate these small tremors to relieve pressure on major faults gradually and thus avoid real earthquakes. Perhaps the government could encourage the industry to drill their disposal wells in the areas where it would save lives, These tremors are so minor that humans typically don't even notice them, and they also occur when you fill a reservoir, build a large building or expand a mine - any time you shift mass around on the earth's surface the ground below adjusts to the change this way. I wonder why Paul isn't trying to stop people building large ponds?

Permalink Reply by craig on March 8, 2016 at 2:15pm

Hmmm, interesting. Gonna have to read some over at Stanford it appears.

Permalink Reply by Barry D on March 8, 2016 at 2:25pm

Jack,

Because Paul does not deal in reality.

Paul isn't interested in solutions.

Paul's purpose is to spread hysteria, fear.

He is an ideologue with regard to oil and gas development.

He is a one issue ideologue - oil and gas development bad and it must be halted.

And, you are correct, these minor earthquakes have no permanent damage.

But, that is irrelevant to people such as Paul. The existence of the earthquakes is just another tool to instill fear in the "Public Mind".

Go back and read his posts, he never offers a solution to the issues which je raises; it's all about fear.

My opinion.

Permalink Reply by craig on March 8, 2016 at 2:14pm

Well, some one listened! Thanks for fixing the Title of this thread, whoever.

Permalink Reply by Paul Heckbert on September 4, 2016 at 5:02pm

Update on oil&gas-industry-induced earthquakes in Oklahoma:

"When an earthquake struck Oklahoma on Saturday, one of the first steps state officials took was to shut down 37 of the state's 3,200 active disposal wells -- a move that drew national attention to the link between oil and gas drilling and earthquakes."

See the video showing how the number of earthquakes skyrocketed after 2013:

http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/04/news/economy/oklahoma-earthquake-oi...

Here's a frame from the video:

0ym9x5ag7ury2Permalink Reply by 0ym9x5ag7ury2 on September 5, 2016 at 2:14am

With the latest earthquake being felt from North Dakota to Texas, I'm wondering if the "jiggle" has any affect on the Montana's Super Volcano growing 3 inches a year under Yellow Stone Park.

Naaaahhh, it wouldn't.

At least I hope not. 

Frack On.

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