Injection wells to rein in operations after Oklahoma earthquake - Oklahoman.com
Injection wells to rein in operations after Oklahoma earthquake
Disposal well operators told to stop, reduce injections after state earthquakes this week
Jack Money
Regulators on Friday told some injection well operators close to the epicenter of Thursday morning's 4.0 earthquake near Carney they will have to shut their operations down, indefinitely.
Officials with Oklahoma's Corporation Commission said the agency's Oil and Gas Conservation Division also issued a directive to owners of other nearby disposal wells to limit the amounts of wastewater they inject into the Arbuckle formation moving forward.
However, commission officials said the directed reductions and shut-ins will be put into place gradually during the next month.
The gradual changes are intended to prevent suddenly changing sub-surface pressures, based upon worries those could increase the risk of another strong earthquake.
Did you feel it? Earthquake shakes Oklahoma early Thursday morning
What injection well operators are being told to do
Those within 6 miles of the earthquake's epicenter are being told they will have to shut down their wells entirely for the foreseeable future.
For owners of wells between 6 and 10 miles out from where the earthquake happened, those injecting an average of 500 barrels per day or less over the past 30 days will be allowed to continue operating, provided they don't exceed that daily volume.
Owners of wells injecting more than 500 barrels per day over the past 30 days will have to reduce flows by 50%.
The Arbuckle is a subsurface rock formation that historically has been used by operators across much of Oklahoma as a place to inject saltwater recovered during normal oil and gas operations,
Reducing volumes of oil and gas wastewater into the Arbuckle formation has been credited by the scientific community with being a key element behind reducing the frequency of 3.0 magnitude or greater earthquakes inside of Oklahoma by 90% since 2015, officials said.
In all, the owners of 23 injection wells within 10 miles of the earthquake's epicenter are being impacted by the directive, they said.
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