Oklahoma and fracking

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Introduction

Oklahoma is part of the Caney and Woodford Shales, which are sites of drilling and fracking. The state also has thousands of injection and disposal wells, which have been linked to a 5.7 earthquake in the state in 2011.

Drilling wells

In July 2012 it was reported that Oklahoma officials ignored advice about injecting water into faults in an effort to extract oil and natural gas. Such injection, warns seismologists, could induce earthquakes.

Click here for an interactive map of oil and gas wells.

Caney Shale, Oklahoma

The Caney Shale in the Arkoma Basin is the stratigraphic equivalent of the Barnett Shale in the Ft. Worth Basin. The formation has become a gas producer since the large success of the Barnett play.

• Bill Grieser: Caney Shale, Oklahoma's shale challenge, PDF file, retrieved 25 February 2009.

Woodford Shale, Oklahoma

The Devonian Woodford Shale in Oklahoma is from 50 to 300 feet (15 – 91 m) thick. Although the first gas production was recorded in 1939, by late 2004, there were only 24 Woodford Shale gas wells. By early 2008, there were more than 750 Woodford gas wells.[1] Like many shale gas plays, the Woodford started with vertical wells, then became dominantly a play of horizontal wells. The play is mostly in the Arkoma Basin of southeast Oklahoma, but some drilling has extended the play west into the Anadarko Basin and south into the Ardmore Basin. The largest gas producer from the Woodford is Newfield Exploration; other operators include Devon Energy, Chesapeake Energy, Cimarex Energy, Antero Resources, St. Mary Land and Exploration, XTO Energy, Pablo Energy, Petroquest Energy, Continental Resources, and Range Resources. Production from the Woodford Shale has peaked and is now in decline, however.

• Oklahoma Geological Survey: Map of Woodford shale wells, accessed 25 February 2009.
• Brian J. Cardott: Overview of Woodford gas-shale play in Oklahoma, 2008 update, PDF file, retrieved 25 February 2009.

Disposal wells

Click here for an interactive map of disposal wells.

As of 2012, there are an estimated 11,000 private and commercial injection and disposal wells in Oklahoma. Each year those wells are injected with billions of gallons of oil and gas wastewater, according to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission -- 8.8 billion gallons of wastewater in the last two years. The Corporation Commission says they have not tallied the amount of water injected through private wells.

Spills and accidents

Click here for an interactive map of spills, leaks, and other drilling incidents.

A 2009 and 2010 report from the EPA Water Quality Protection Division lists concerns the agency has with the state's injection well program, including inaccurately reported data and operators injecting for years without valid permits. Ultimately the report recommends the Corporation Commission in Oklahoma take immediate actions to fix "critical problems."

Worker deaths and injuries

Between October and June 2012, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Oklahoma City reported nine work-related deaths in the oil/gas industries and three people who were injured in a drilling rig fire. In response, OSHA, the state Department of Labor, and the Mid-Continent Exploration & Safety Production Network asked Oklahoma’s oil and gas exploration and production companies to stand down and stop operations for a meeting on safety issues.

Tremors

Oklahoma has seen a sharp rise in the number of earthquakes in the last few years. In August 2011, the Oklahoma Geological Survey examined a cluster of earthquakes in Oklahoma and found "that shortly after hydraulic fracturing began small earthquakes started occurring, and more than 50 were identified, of which 43 were large enough to be located. Most of these earthquakes occurred within a 24 hour period after hydraulic fracturing operations had ceased."

On April 18, 2012, University of Memphis scientist Stephen Horton released his findings that a 5.7 quake in November 2011 was "possibly triggered" by injection wells near the fault that ruptured. Horton found that 63 percent of earthquakes have occurred within 10 kilometers (about 6 miles) of a deep injection well, compared to a 31 percent chance of a random, natural earthquake happening within 10 kilometers of a deep injection well. He did note that the correlation between the location of the quake centers and the wells was complicated by the fact that some of the nearby injection wells had been in operation for 10 years, and the amount of fluid being injected has reportedly been on the decline for the last five years.

A 2013 study published in Geology linked Oklahoma's 5.7 earthquake to underground injection of wastewater, saying a decades-long time lag between injection and tremors is possible. Geologists placed seismometers in the area after the initial quake and were able to track fault rupture areas, which showed close proximity to disposal wells. According to the researchers: "we interpret that a net fluid volume increase after 18 yr of injection lowered effective stress on reservoir-bounding faults. Significantly, this case indicates that decades-long lags between the commencement of fluid injection and the onset of induced earthquakes are possible."

Legislative issues and regulations

In July 2011 the Oklahoma Corporation Commission was established to regulate hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells as a well completion operation. The Commission’s environmental protection rules were set up to address various aspects of well completion, and compliance with the rules is assured through inspection, reporting, investigation, and enforcement mechanisms.

Reports

Fracking and earthquakes

A 2011 United States Geological Survey (USGS) report, Examination of Possibly Induced Seismicity from Hydraulic Fracturing in the Eola Field, Garvin County, Oklahoma," links a series of earthquakes in Oklahoma in January 2011 to a fracking operation underway there. The USGS found that, overall, some 50 small earthquakes had been registered in the region, ranging in magnitude from 1.0 to 2.8. The bulk occurred within 2.1 miles of Eola Field, a fracking operation in southern Garvin County. The USGS determined that "the character of the seismic recordings indicate that they are both shallow and unique.”

Oklahoma approves fracking disclosures

It was reported in May 2012 that Oklahoma oil and natural gas producers would to forced to disclose the chemicals used in their hydraulic fracturing operations under new rules set to go into effect July 1, 2012. Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin signed off on the rules, which were approved by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. Companies will report directly to the commission or use FracFocus.org.

Resources

Related SourceWatch articles

• United States and fracking

Click on the map below for state-by-state information on fracking:

External links

• FracTracker

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