Friday, January 15, 2016

Oklahoma Corporation Commission Issues New Emergency Action Plan for Disposal Wells Located in North Central Oklahoma

On January 13, 2016, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) announced the launch of a new emergency action plan in response to recent earthquakes near the Fairview area in north central Oklahoma. On January 4, the USGS reported a swarm of earthquakes including a magnitude 4.8 earthquake located less than 20 miles from the Fairview area. As a result, the Commission called for changes in disposal well operating activities, imposing a total disposal volume reduction of approximately 18% for 27 wells in the area.

Interestingly, the Commission stated that “the seismic events that occurred during the week of January 4th, 2016, in the Fairview area appear to have a very close correlation to the storms that created power outages in such area. It is believed that the power outage may have created a situation where a number of producing wells were shut in, then simultaneously came back on line. When the wells began producing again, this apparently resulted in a tremendous volume of produced water being disposed into the Arbuckle formation at the same time.”

Therefore, the Commission recommended a gradual return to activity in similar incidents to mitigate the potential seismic impacts.

Written by Chloe Marie - Research Fellow
01/15/2016

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