The volume of wastewater from oil and gas activities disposed beneath Oklahoma soil climbed 81 percent across six years, coinciding with the state’s seismic leap in earthquakes.
Even more notably, the wastewater injected into the state’s deepest geologic formation — the Arbuckle — has ballooned 141 percent during the same period.
The substantial rise in those volumes is documented in a https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288833796_Class_II_Saltwater_Disposal_for_2009-2014_at_the_Annual-_State-_and_County-_Scales_by_Geologic_Zones_of_Completion_Oklahoma?channel=doi&linkId=5685967f08ae1975839520d4&showFulltext=true by an Oklahoma Geological Survey scientist...
...Hydrogeologist Kyle Murray, who conducted the study, told the Tulsa World last week it is concerning that “very little” is known about the Arbuckle formation and how it may be hydraulically connected with the basement. The study is another piece needed to eventually solve Oklahoma’s earthquake puzzle...
...That data may be key to unlocking puzzling areas in which seismicity isn’t near deep or high-volume wells. An example of that is the recent
24-hour swarm of temblors near Fairview, with the vast majority of wells more than 10 miles away.
Geological Survey Director Jeremy Boak said there is a lot of variation in Grant, Alfalfa and Woods counties. He called the Fairview sequences a “curious anomaly” that scientists must closely inspect.
“There’s another earthquake zone that’s been sort of going on for some time now over in Woodward County, and we don’t know what’s going on there,” Boak said. “There’s only one Arbuckle injection well nearby, and it’s not a big-volume well.
“So there’s some activities that are going on that we clearly don’t understand. In general, we’re pretty confident that what we’re seeing is this relationship of seismicity to disposal, and disposal in the Arbuckle.”
Dave
(I see that article as being one shot fired in a very large conflict, thank you NASA/JPL)
