Staff at the Oklahoma Corporation Commission directed that an injection well operated by SandRidge Energy be shut down Tuesday due to continuing earthquakes in Alfalfa County near the Kansas border.
The well is the second active wastewater injection well directed to “shut in” or halt operations by the agency since it began a new monitoring system in 2013.
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Matt Skinner, a spokesman for the commission, said agency staff issued the directive Tuesday morning due to a magnitude-4.1 earthquake recorded in the area Friday. The well is just west of the Alfalfa County town of Cherokee.
“They were operating under a ‘yellow light’ permit with language that said shut in if there’s any seismic activity,” Skinner said.
Injection wells are used to dispose of wastewater, laden with salt and toxic chemicals, produced from oil and gas wells. The state has about 3,200 active injection wells that disposed of a combined 1.1 billion barrels of wastewater in 2013.
Due to a huge increase in earthquakes in recent years, the Corporation Commission began using a “traffic light” system in December 2013.
Under the system, wells within a six-mile radius of a magnitude-4.0 earthquake are placed under operating restrictions. If additional earthquakes occur within six miles of an active well in that area, the commission can order the operator to halt injection while more information is gathered.
Dozens of scientific studies since the 1970s, including several studies of Oklahoma earthquakes, have linked injection wells and earthquakes. Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey have also said they believe that the state’s increased seismicity is due to injection wells.
Jeff Wilson, vice president for government and public affairs at SandRidge, said: “We received a notice from the Corporation Commission that under their new monitoring review for saltwater disposal wells, this review process is underway. As we have in the past, and as we continue to do with all Corporation Commission requests, we are working closely with commission staff to provide them any and all information needed.”
The commission held a hearing Nov. 26 on SandRidge’s permit application due to staff concerns about earthquakes in the area, records show. SandRidge asked to dispose of up to 80,000 barrels of wastewater per day, or 29 million barrels per year.
During the hearing, commission staff testified that the well was one mile from recent earthquakes. SandRidge had agreed to submit additional data to the commission on the amount of wastewater it was disposing and the amount of pressure used in the process.
“The UIC (Underground Injection Control) Department had numerous meetings with applicant (SandRidge) and found that applicant was cooperative in working toward attempting to operate in a manner so as to reduce the risk of injection acting as a trigger for induced seismicity in the area,” records of the hearing state.
A consultant for SandRidge, J.P. Dick, testified during the hearing that the company planned to drill numerous horizontal wells in the region, known as the Mississippian.
With the advent of horizontal drilling combined with fracking — or hydraulic fracturing of subsurface rock — the area in north-central Oklahoma and across the border in Kansas has seen a boom in oil drilling. Because of heavy water content in the area, operators there want disposal wells close to drilling operations.
“The cost of water disposal is a significant part of developing the Mississippian common source of supply, and trucking the water to a commercial disposal facility is cost prohibitive,” Dick told the commission.
“Absent the ability to dispose of the water, … the development of the Mississippian common source of supply will cease. Applicant has expended a significant amount of time and money.”
Dick told the commission he had examined well logs for the area and “determined that there is no faulting in the immediate area.” He said “the recent seismic activity in this area appears to be naturally occurring” and the injection well’s operation would not trigger earthquakes in the area.
The well and many others in the state inject into the Arbuckle geologic formation, a porous layer of rock just above the granite “basement” layer. That layer is prone to fracturing and faults, so the commission requires tests to ensure that wells don’t penetrate the basement rock.
After hearing testimony in November, the commission granted a permit for SandRidge to dispose of up to 40,000 barrels per day, half the requested amount.
“Any action … to suspend or restrict operations shall be based upon the scientific analysis of all available data to determine and manage the risk of triggered seismicity,” the order states.
Records show that commission staff also issued a directive to halt injection at a Payne County well operated by Devon Energy on Nov. 10 due to continuing earthquakes in that area. The well had been permitted to dispose of 25,000 barrels per day following a hearing in September.
A spokesman for Devon declined to comment on the matter.
The commission has taken a number of other actions as part of its monitoring system. Staff issued directives on Jan. 5 for five Devon wells to temporarily halt operations, records show. The company must demonstrate that its wells are at the proper depth before they can resume operations.
Skinner said a meeting between commission staff and Devon is set for next week to discuss the wells.
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Rules of Conduct
Welcome to the discussion.
23 comments:
Jaime Kristine posted at 11:46 am on Sun, Feb 8, 2015.
Something that may be of interest you: http://www.sgpaction.com/jaimekristine1/what_the_frack
fsmith-143 posted at 6:28 am on Sun, Feb 8, 2015.
The frackers have done that. Was that what you were suggesting? There have been hundreds of quakes, consequently, in Kansas.
fsmith-143 posted at 6:26 am on Sun, Feb 8, 2015.
The challenge in a lawsuit (one was filed by a victim of the Prague quake) is to demonstrate unambiguously that it was a particular well or wells that caused the quake. That's why the industry isn't afraid of torts.
James Michaels posted at 1:36 am on Thu, Feb 5, 2015.
This is directly opposed to Republican capitalistic values. i.e.
1. Leave private enterprise alone--keep government out--private enterprise will self regulate;
2. There is no harm caused whatsoever to the environment by carbon emissions or drilling by the State's biggest employer;
3. The rich people that own these o & g wells are entitled to do what they want when they want and the rest should be thankful for the jobs that they create.
Pandora Hagadakis posted at 7:32 pm on Wed, Feb 4, 2015.
That's the magic word, all they care about, "cost". Seems the public needs to require commercial disposal which takes care of the problem as that's not profitable. Meanwhile, they seem to have screwed the pooch with overproduction. Fracking was only great for them at $100 / barrel oil.
Pandora Hagadakis posted at 7:29 pm on Wed, Feb 4, 2015.
Any other industry that took on those kind of liabilities would be required to have adequate insurance from a well capitalized carrier. Their current CEO is a money man, not an oil man, and they're "only" a billion dollar a year corp, so I'm figuring if something really big happened they'd just file bankruptcy. And Nationwide has announced it won't pay for fracking claims.
The balance of responsibilities is way out of kilter.
Pandora Hagadakis posted at 7:08 pm on Wed, Feb 4, 2015.
There really has to be some investment in monitoring equipment. Until there are enough stations to create tensor moment solutions, aka "beachballs", for each quake, you're guessing about what's going on. It's not too hard to guess but it seems a minimum requirement that you have the relevant data. Case in point: the depth is always given as if it is known. Five miles. Yeah, that's...I'm totally serious...plus or minus 7 miles. That's the kind of data we've got here. I lived in the Bay Area many years and I never would have imagined an area with so much activity having such little diagnostic equipment and so few monitoring networks. You need a lot of points to create a three dimensional solution. Right now the one (heroic) monitoring station is like comparing NSA surveillance to a guy saying, "They went that-a-way!"
cejays-200 posted at 5:21 pm on Wed, Feb 4, 2015.
Largest quake so far was the 5.6 that rattled Oklahoma City. With all the scientific data in the past 2 yearsI can 100% guarantee if we have a 6.0 or larger that kills numerous people and causes millions or billions in property damage, in a city like Oklahoma City or Tulsa, a lot of people will own Devon, Chesapeake, Sand Ridge, or any other oil company. The lawsuits that will be filed will be staggering.
Jennifer Hodges posted at 4:54 pm on Wed, Feb 4, 2015.
Yes, so apparently you're not getting how greedy they are.
Joseph Paulk posted at 2:26 pm on Wed, Feb 4, 2015.
How about, NEVER been. [wink]
Joseph Paulk posted at 2:25 pm on Wed, Feb 4, 2015.
Apparently you've been to Yellowstone National Park.
haulna-164 posted at 2:10 pm on Wed, Feb 4, 2015.
You do realize that these injection wells are usually a mile or more underneath any aquifer. They also use cement casing just like any other well, so they chances of contamination is minimal. I'm sure there are some interesting physics at work at those depths, but I doubt water rises.
haulna-164 posted at 2:06 pm on Wed, Feb 4, 2015.
I'm not sure you understand how profitable the industry really is. They could pay to rebuild just about every US home damaged by an earthquake in a given year and still come out with billions in profits.
Jean Mcmahon posted at 1:01 pm on Wed, Feb 4, 2015.
Bout time...Ban fracking like NY State
Rick Neal posted at 12:24 pm on Wed, Feb 4, 2015.
"The state has about 3,200 active injection wells that disposed of a combined 1.1 billion barrels of wastewater in 2013."
Good God, no wonder we're having earthquakes, where do you think this nasty wastewater's going to do when it's crammed down into the earth? It sure isn't going to disappear, it's like a water balloon folks, it's rupturing the earth under our feet. Big oil uses fracturing to rid their chemicals at our cost.
Ann McWhortor posted at 12:23 pm on Wed, Feb 4, 2015.
Well, this surprised me. Now, how long will it last?
Joseph Paulk posted at 12:00 pm on Wed, Feb 4, 2015.
So they're injecting poison into a "porous layer of rock" which is prone to fracturing. And where does that poisonous water go? Boys and girls, can y"all say "aquifer"? Of course, to suggest that drinking poisoned water is not a good thing is to be antibusiness, which is clearly another Obama plot.
Joseph Paulk posted at 11:52 am on Wed, Feb 4, 2015.
He's so cold-blooded, that's not too likely.
Ivan Vaz posted at 9:58 am on Wed, Feb 4, 2015.
oh yeah that's just so easy to do....just pack up your well bore and go!
the IQ levels around here have reached new lows....
George Jones posted at 9:30 am on Wed, Feb 4, 2015.
Well frack me! Never thought I'd see the day.
[beam]
Bud Wright posted at 8:45 am on Wed, Feb 4, 2015.
All they need to do is move across the state line.
David Hamilton posted at 7:20 am on Wed, Feb 4, 2015.
I bet this boils Inhofe's blood. Good.
ML Wells posted at 7:09 am on Wed, Feb 4, 2015.
If there is a definitive link between injection wells and seismic activity, such wells would be "cost prohibitive" if the oil companies were required to pay homeowners' damages due to earthquake activity!