Bob
22nd April 2015, 16:34
21 April 2015
The studies are in.
"There appears to be little doubt about the conclusion that the earthquakes were in fact induced," USGS seismologist Susan Hough, who wasn't part of the study team, said in an email.
"There's almost an abundance of smoking guns in this case."
There have been also a tremendous jump in earthquakes in Oklahoma and southern Kansas, where there have been more than 950 magnitude 2 or higher quakes so far this year, according to the USGS.
West of Ft. Worth in the 84 days monitored in the study, from November 2013 to January 2014, the area around Azle, Texas, shook with 27 magnitude 2 or greater earthquakes, while scientists at Southern Methodist University and the U.S. Geological Survey monitored the shaking.
It's an area that had no recorded quakes for 150 years on faults that "have been inactive for hundreds of millions of years," said SMU geophysicist Matthew Hornbach.
The scientists concluded that removing saltwater from the wells in the gas production process and then injecting that wastewater back underground "represent the most likely cause" for the swarm of quakes, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.
http://www.pennenergy.com/content/dam/Pennenergy/online-articles/2015/April/Geologist.JPG
When the volume of wastewater injections into DISPOSAL WELLS decreased significantly, so did the shaking.
In the past, studies have linked quakes to the injection of wastewater after the drilling process This study is different because it also sees a secondary link in another part of the drilling process, when massive amounts of brine is taking out of the ground with the gas, said study co-author William Ellsworth of the USGS.
Removing the saltwater changes the underground pressure, Hornbach said.
But the deep injection of the wastes still is the principle culprit, Ellsworth said.
The controversial method of hydraulic fracturing or fracking, even though that may be used in the drilling, is not physically causing the shakes, he said.
Did you follow that?
IT IS NOT THE FRACKING doing the deeds as far as the earthquakes, but the re-injection of 'produced salt water' from oil and gas wells into what are called "disposal wells".
A disposal well is chosen because it is no longer producing adequate oil or natural gas. It is often an OLD well, with OLD casings, OLD PIPE, all of which can be leaking at shallower depths.
Oil and Gas wells are made with shielding casings and pipes where the water table (fresh water) is located, this is to ensure the non-contamination of the water table. It is strictly controlled by the inspection process, monitored during the permitting process, and drilled by reputable drillers and completed by skilled workers (The Moncando Blow-out in the Gulf of Mexico comes to mind..)
HOWEVER, are there adequate controls on the inspection of an INJECTION (disposal well) to determine if the casing is intact, if the piping is intact, and if the perforations in the lower bottom of the pipe are in the proper location to re-pressurize the old well now with another well's wastewater?
Are there adequate controls in the inspection of other wells in the area "changing in characteristics", such as mysteriously going dry, or mysteriously rapidly turning to water production, instead of oil or gas? That could indicate that an injection well has damaged the other formations in the area.
Have earthquakes started with the injecting of wastewater? A fracking operation is generally a one time operation, using extremely high pressure water deep down into the formations, many thousands of feet below the surface water-table..
Injection wells keep getting flooded with high pressure water, over and over.. Do casings crack near the surface? Do old pipes break? If so, there can be water table contamination, existing oil/gas field damage, and fault zones which have been stable, now "lubricated" so quakes can potentially happen.
Typical Horizontal well design able to go after SHALE OIL and SHALE GAS:
http://www.excoresources.com/images/environment-graphic-4.jpg
Note the multiple PIPES and CEMENT in-between the pipes, and the outer casing pipe and the earth itself.
Each of those cement bonds needs to be secure and stay secure for years and years.
This is an oil field example of PRODUCTION WELLS, plus ENHANCED RECOVERY (stimulation water injection) AND INJECTION WELL for disposal of produced salt water..
http://image.slidesharecdn.com/gao-664499-140729094423-phpapp02/95/gao-report-epa-oversight-of-injection-wells-13-638.jpg?cb=1406645210
The PRODUCTION WELL was most likely "fractured" once to open up the production zone.
The Stimulation (enhanced recovery well) was earlier most likely "fractured" to open up early production. It when it stopped producing oil or gas in adequate volumes for economical recovery, then was changed over to a stimulation well. A stimulation well then is "GENTLY" repressurized from the surface, with a controlled amount of saltwater (from oil/water separation activity). The stimulation is continued, with this water drive, to drive the oil to the NEWER PRODUCTION WELL.
Nearby in the field, a WASTE DISPOSAL WELL most likely exists. The purpose of this well is to accept the separated WASTE SALT WATER from production wells in the area. It receives saltwater and under high pressure pumps the wastewater into the formation(s) which will accept. When the original hydrostatic pressure has been equalized to what was originally taken OUT of the field, the wastwater well SHOULD PROPERLY BE SHUT DOWN.. INSTEAD it is possible that some disposal operators do not know when enough is enough for the disposal operations, and then over-pressure.. The over-pressure then runs the risk of damage to the well itself, the casing, piping, and the formations, and fault zones..
ARE OIL AND GAS PRODUCTION the only sources of pressurized underground wastewater injection?
NO. Just blaming the oil and gas industry for the earthquakes, and contamination dangers is wrong.
http://www.propublica.org/projects/injection-wells/Injection-Wells-Class1.png
Wastewater injection wells may not necessarily be properly monitored when the oil and gas industry is not the user of that well. Industrial Chemical Plants, AND Municipal waste-water treatment plants use the DISPOSAL wells. Are they creating the surface-water contamination - something to think about and then do the research.
The studies are in.
"There appears to be little doubt about the conclusion that the earthquakes were in fact induced," USGS seismologist Susan Hough, who wasn't part of the study team, said in an email.
"There's almost an abundance of smoking guns in this case."
There have been also a tremendous jump in earthquakes in Oklahoma and southern Kansas, where there have been more than 950 magnitude 2 or higher quakes so far this year, according to the USGS.
West of Ft. Worth in the 84 days monitored in the study, from November 2013 to January 2014, the area around Azle, Texas, shook with 27 magnitude 2 or greater earthquakes, while scientists at Southern Methodist University and the U.S. Geological Survey monitored the shaking.
It's an area that had no recorded quakes for 150 years on faults that "have been inactive for hundreds of millions of years," said SMU geophysicist Matthew Hornbach.
The scientists concluded that removing saltwater from the wells in the gas production process and then injecting that wastewater back underground "represent the most likely cause" for the swarm of quakes, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.
http://www.pennenergy.com/content/dam/Pennenergy/online-articles/2015/April/Geologist.JPG
When the volume of wastewater injections into DISPOSAL WELLS decreased significantly, so did the shaking.
In the past, studies have linked quakes to the injection of wastewater after the drilling process This study is different because it also sees a secondary link in another part of the drilling process, when massive amounts of brine is taking out of the ground with the gas, said study co-author William Ellsworth of the USGS.
Removing the saltwater changes the underground pressure, Hornbach said.
But the deep injection of the wastes still is the principle culprit, Ellsworth said.
The controversial method of hydraulic fracturing or fracking, even though that may be used in the drilling, is not physically causing the shakes, he said.
Did you follow that?
IT IS NOT THE FRACKING doing the deeds as far as the earthquakes, but the re-injection of 'produced salt water' from oil and gas wells into what are called "disposal wells".
A disposal well is chosen because it is no longer producing adequate oil or natural gas. It is often an OLD well, with OLD casings, OLD PIPE, all of which can be leaking at shallower depths.
Oil and Gas wells are made with shielding casings and pipes where the water table (fresh water) is located, this is to ensure the non-contamination of the water table. It is strictly controlled by the inspection process, monitored during the permitting process, and drilled by reputable drillers and completed by skilled workers (The Moncando Blow-out in the Gulf of Mexico comes to mind..)
HOWEVER, are there adequate controls on the inspection of an INJECTION (disposal well) to determine if the casing is intact, if the piping is intact, and if the perforations in the lower bottom of the pipe are in the proper location to re-pressurize the old well now with another well's wastewater?
Are there adequate controls in the inspection of other wells in the area "changing in characteristics", such as mysteriously going dry, or mysteriously rapidly turning to water production, instead of oil or gas? That could indicate that an injection well has damaged the other formations in the area.
Have earthquakes started with the injecting of wastewater? A fracking operation is generally a one time operation, using extremely high pressure water deep down into the formations, many thousands of feet below the surface water-table..
Injection wells keep getting flooded with high pressure water, over and over.. Do casings crack near the surface? Do old pipes break? If so, there can be water table contamination, existing oil/gas field damage, and fault zones which have been stable, now "lubricated" so quakes can potentially happen.
Typical Horizontal well design able to go after SHALE OIL and SHALE GAS:
http://www.excoresources.com/images/environment-graphic-4.jpg
Note the multiple PIPES and CEMENT in-between the pipes, and the outer casing pipe and the earth itself.
Each of those cement bonds needs to be secure and stay secure for years and years.
This is an oil field example of PRODUCTION WELLS, plus ENHANCED RECOVERY (stimulation water injection) AND INJECTION WELL for disposal of produced salt water..
http://image.slidesharecdn.com/gao-664499-140729094423-phpapp02/95/gao-report-epa-oversight-of-injection-wells-13-638.jpg?cb=1406645210
The PRODUCTION WELL was most likely "fractured" once to open up the production zone.
The Stimulation (enhanced recovery well) was earlier most likely "fractured" to open up early production. It when it stopped producing oil or gas in adequate volumes for economical recovery, then was changed over to a stimulation well. A stimulation well then is "GENTLY" repressurized from the surface, with a controlled amount of saltwater (from oil/water separation activity). The stimulation is continued, with this water drive, to drive the oil to the NEWER PRODUCTION WELL.
Nearby in the field, a WASTE DISPOSAL WELL most likely exists. The purpose of this well is to accept the separated WASTE SALT WATER from production wells in the area. It receives saltwater and under high pressure pumps the wastewater into the formation(s) which will accept. When the original hydrostatic pressure has been equalized to what was originally taken OUT of the field, the wastwater well SHOULD PROPERLY BE SHUT DOWN.. INSTEAD it is possible that some disposal operators do not know when enough is enough for the disposal operations, and then over-pressure.. The over-pressure then runs the risk of damage to the well itself, the casing, piping, and the formations, and fault zones..
ARE OIL AND GAS PRODUCTION the only sources of pressurized underground wastewater injection?
NO. Just blaming the oil and gas industry for the earthquakes, and contamination dangers is wrong.
http://www.propublica.org/projects/injection-wells/Injection-Wells-Class1.png
Wastewater injection wells may not necessarily be properly monitored when the oil and gas industry is not the user of that well. Industrial Chemical Plants, AND Municipal waste-water treatment plants use the DISPOSAL wells. Are they creating the surface-water contamination - something to think about and then do the research.