Earthquakes may bring backlash to Oklahoma’s fracturing industry
A backlash against hydraulic fracturing in Oklahoma may be about to get worse following a recordtying earthquake over the weekend, potentially slowing the development of some of the United States’ most coveted shale plays.
Oklahoma regulators had already been limiting the disposal of oil field wastewater, which scientists have linked to seismic activity, before a 5.6-magnitude tremor in the state was felt from Texas to Illinois on Saturday, matching a 2011 record. The number of earthquakes measuring 3.0 or higher reached at least 890 last year, followed by about 375 this year through June 22. The numbers are a far cry from only two in 2008, before the state’s fracking boom.
As oil production surged in Oklahoma, with the Scoop and Stack areas among the most soughtafter new plays in the country, so did the disposal of wastewater from fracked fields. Several producers, and now the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, face lawsuits because of seismic activity allegedly linked to disposal wells in Oklahoma and other states.
“They are going to push the industry to come up with some permanent solutions,” said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research in Winchester, Mass. “It’s hard to believe Oklahoma would move to ban fracking, but I can see where they would say to people that they have to do something else with the wastewater, which is believed to be the source of the increase in earthquakes.”
Oklahoma, a region previously not known for intense seismic activity, began having a significant number of earthquakes in 2009, the same year local oil companies began using fracturing to shatter deep rock layers to extract oil and natural gas. Such wells produce large quantities of wastewater, which drilling companies inject into ultradeep disposal wells.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates oil and gas activity in the state, has been issuing restrictions for more than a year aimed at cutting the amount of wastewater injected into disposal wells. There are about 35,000 active wells, though only a few dozen have been linked to quakes, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence report in May, citing the U.S. Geological Survey.
“Without studying the specifics of the wastewater injection and oil and gas production in this area, the USGS cannot currently conclude whether or not this particular earthquake was caused by industrialrelated, human activities,” the agency said Saturday in a statement. “However, we do know that many earthquakes in Oklahoma have been triggered by wastewater fluid injection.”
Saturday’s earthquake, near a complex of oil-storage facilities, led the regulator to order the suspension of 37 wastewater disposal wells. This was the first time the state regulator has issued the mandatory measure, commission spokesman Matt Skinner said.