Tag Archives: Cushing

Oklahoma regulator issues new regional protocol to curb earthquakes

FILE PHOTO - An oil pumpjack is seen in Velma, Oklahoma U.S. April 7, 2016. REUTERS/Luc Cohen

By Liz Hampton

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Oklahoma’s oil and gas regulator on Tuesday released new requirements aimed at reducing the risk of earthquakes from hydraulic fracturing in shale regions in central and southern areas of the state.

The new protocol, issued by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC), comes in addition to existing rules that apply to a 15,000 square mile area targeted by the regulator for its high rate of temblors from wastewater injection.

The new requirements are aimed at completion activities in the SCOOP and STACK shale producing areas, where drilling is picking up as U.S. oil prices have climbed above $60 a barrel this year.

The state in recent years saw a surge in earthquakes due to the injection of saltwater produced from oil and gas drilling activities into disposal wells. In 2015, there were 903 magnitude 3.0 or higher earthquakes, versus just 41 temblors of that intensity five years earlier, according to Oklahoma Geological Survey data.

Under the new rules, operators will be required to have access to a seismic array that gives real-time information on earthquakes. The rules also lower the threshold for which an operator must take action to a magnitude 2.0 quake from 2.5, and require some operators to pause operations for six hours in the event of a 2.5 magnitude quake.

Previously, operators were only required to pause operations for a magnitude 3.0 or higher quake.

There have been 80 earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or greater in the SCOOP and STACK area of Oklahoma since December 2016, Matt Skinner, public information manager for the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, said on Tuesday.

“Ultimately, the goal is to have enough information to develop plans that will virtually eliminate the risk of a felt earthquake from a well completion operation in the SCOOP and STACK,” said Jeremy Boak, director of the Oklahoma Geological Survey, in a release. Earthquakes that fall below 2.5 magnitude are usually not felt but can be measured on seismographs.

Well completion activities are less likely to produce induced earthquakes than wastewater injection, geologists said in a release issued by the OCC on Tuesday.

The SCOOP and STACK have far less water associated with drilling activities than Oklahoma’s Arbuckle formation, which was linked to a high rate of temblors from wastewater injection, they added.

The jump in earthquakes has drawn increased attention in recent years, particularly after some larger quakes have occurred near the massive oil storage hub of Cushing, Oklahoma.

(Reporting by Liz Hampton; Editing by Tom Brown)

Magnitude 5.0 quake strikes near Cushing, Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) – An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.0 struck near Cushing, Oklahoma, on Sunday damaging several buildings and prompting evacuations, but there were no reports of injuries, authorities said.

The quake was centered 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Cushing, a small city of about 8,000 people some 50 miles west of Tulsa, which is the location of intersecting oil pipelines and is considered a hub for crude oil shipment.

The oil and gas division of the Oklahoma Corporation commission said in a statement that they are in contact with pipeline operators, but so far there were no immediate reports of damage to pipelines.

Cushing authorities said the downtown area was being evacuated due to gas leaks and infrastructure inspection.

The quake was among the larger temblors felt recently in Oklahoma, part of a flurry of seismic activity geologists say is linked to energy production and is fueling growing concern.

People posting on Twitter, including some as far away as Kansas City, Missouri, reported that they felt the shaking.

Pictures on Twitter showed broken concrete that apparently fell from buildings in downtown Cushing and products littering the aisles of stores after being shaken from shelves.

Cushing High School canceled classes on Monday in order to assess damage, according to a message on its Facebook page.

Two smaller earthquakes, one at a 3.1 magnitude and the other at a 3.6 magnitude, rattled the area around Perry, Oklahoma, earlier on Sunday.

About two months ago a magnitude 5.6 quake, one of the strongest ever recorded in Oklahoma, shook the area.

Most earthquakes occur naturally, but scientists have long linked some smaller tremors to oil and gas work underground, which can alter pressure points and cause shifts in the earth.

In a report released last year, the Oklahoma Geological Survey said that the earthquakes were linked to the practice of injecting wastewater from oil production into the ground.

Some of that is related to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which involves injecting water, sand and chemicals at high pressure into rock to extract natural gas or other products. But the report said fracking is responsible for only a small percentage of the wastewater injected into wells in Oklahoma.

(Reporting by Heide Brandes in Oklahoma City,  Peter Cooney in Washington, Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, Calif. and Chris Michaud in New York; Editing by Chris Reese and Michael Perry)

Four earthquakes strike Oklahoma, including another 4.7

Four more earthquakes struck Oklahoma on Monday, including one of magnitude 4.7.

That’s according to the United States Geological Survey’s earthquake data.

The magnitude 4.7 earthquake came at 3:49 a.m. Central Time, the USGS said. It was about five kilometers below the earth’s surface and was centered near Medford, close to the Kansas border.

The Associated Press said there were no immediate accounts of damage, but KWTV News 9 reported the quake was felt across Oklahoma and it shook some of the state’s residents awake.

The Tulsa World reported this morning’s earthquake tied for the largest one in the state since 2011. It was matched only by a magnitude 4.7 earthquake located near Cherokee on Nov. 19.

A trio of smaller earthquakes followed.

A magnitude 3.0 quake occurred at 5:50 a.m. near Edmond, according to the USGS. An hour later, there were magnitude 3.1 and 2.7 earthquakes within 40 minutes of each other near Perry.

More than 5,000 earthquakes have already been recorded in Oklahoma this year, according to NPR. The oil and gas industries in Oklahoma produce a lot of wastewater, which the USGS has linked to the rise in earthquakes. State officials have introduced measures to limit wastewater.

Oklahoma is a key component of the energy scene in the United States.

It houses what an NPR report called North America’s largest commercial crude oil storage center, holding approximately 54 million barrels of oil in tanks the size of airplane hangars.

The facility is located in Cushing. While an official told NPR that the Oklahoma quakes have not caused any issues yet, the tanks weren’t constructed with any kind of major earthquake in mind.

That’s because the swarm in earthquakes is a recent phenomenon.

The number of earthquakes began to trend upward in 2009, and a USGS report found a 50 percent increase in the state’s earthquake rate from October 2013 to its May 2014 publication.

The report also said that raised the odds that a magnitude 5.5 quake would hit Oklahoma. A magnitude 5.6 quake hit Prague in November 2011, which is the state’s biggest quake on record.

A USGS research geophysicist told NPR he’s spoken to the Department of Homeland Security about the Cushing oil tanks. NPR also reported that officials fear that any earthquake damage to the Cushing facility could have significant implications in the United States energy market.