USGS Confirms Earthquake Caused by Injection Well Activity

[TAlan CB]

That is a good question and I am sure there are many variable. Not everyone who drives drunk kills a family of 4 on the way home from the movies either, yet we don't let people drive drunk as a precaution anyhow. I guess in the end it comes down to "Is the risk worth the reward". If fracking does cause earthquakes is getting domestic oil worth it?

The connection was too obvious. But does it do it all the time, probably not. It happens in areas that conditions exist that might be 'stressed' by the addition of the new pressure. What many may not realize is that some of the oldest fault lines in North America run across Oklahoma. East to west along the mountain chains in the south of the state, which are geologically connected. North to South along a fault that roughly parallels I-35.
Why no earthquakes - actually I can remember several small ones, very infrequent. The pressure is there, but is very low compared to younger, active faults. So why now? Add a lot of pressure from several wells - and the addition of the lubricant, and what little pressure is there is released. I doubt that the pressure will ever be enough for a significant earthquake - over 6.0, the faults are too old and really not that active. If it were just the earthquakes, then I would vote yes, it is well worth it for the energy. My real concern is the illusion that what is being pump that deep into the ground is not going to work its way up into the water table - there are too many ways for it to do so. Our only hope is that some of the added extras will 'filter' out as it works it's way up....that is a slim hope. Poisoned water is far worse that a few 'shakes'.

[mkjeeves]

How I am understanding it is that there is big volume of oil up front but that the wells go dry quickly. Not unlike water rights calculations in the early 20th century, the volume predictions are made during flood stage, not at average flow stage (to use the water analogy). In the end it doesn't matter what the predictions were, it only matters what really happens. When I saw Cramer yesterday hocking the **** out of fracking I suspected something was fishy. I think he has some energy stocks he needs to unload before this revelation hits the masses.

Yes, like we both said, the up front volume is high and the wells go dry quickly. A comparison is illustrated here along with a little other discussion. I'm not sure why you think predictions for reserves would be based on long production times and figures of older technology when the current methods with short production/high volume have had some time to have been studied and understood somewhat. Got some information where estimate methodology is fouled up?



The Oil Drum | Horizontal and Vertical Well Production

When I went looking for that link, I tripped across this story too, which is part of the question of the above link from 2007. Are companies getting better at extracting?

Companies drilling in the Marcellus and other shale formations across the country are getting better at what they do, according to a report released today by the federal Energy Information Administration.
"Increasing precision and efficiency of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing" has resulted in each well producing more natural gas, on average, than seven years ago, according to the report.
And that is changing the way production estimates for the United States are being calculated.
According to the government data, the report says: "a Marcellus Shale well completed by a rig in April 2014 can be expected to yield over 6 million cubic feet of natural gas per day more than a well completed by that rig in that formation in 2007."

Fracking efficiently: Government changes how it calculates future oil and gas production because wells are producing more than before | PennLive.com

Surely there's someone in the oil and gas business who reads this forum?

[Just the facts]

Got some information where estimate methodology is fouled up?

I'm not going to post any quotes so as to not derail this thread from earthquakes - but read this.

Fracking is turning the US into a bigger oil producer than Saudi Arabia - Americas - World - The Independent

[mkjeeves]

I'm not going to post any quotes so as to not derail this thread from earthquakes - but read this.

Fracking is turning the US into a bigger oil producer than Saudi Arabia - Americas - World - The Independent

So we're basically in agreement, there are huge reserves. I thought you were trying to say there aren't.

Unless we end fracking, which is pretty unlikely, no matter how bad an idea it may turn out to be in the end.

[Dubya61]

I inwardly chuckled and groaned all at the same time this morning when hearing the news report Governor Fallin say she didn't want to ban fracking until all the research was done, but she had no problem banning e-cigs with just the suspicion that they might be hazardous.

[Plutonic Panda]

That is a good question and I am sure there are many variable. Not everyone who drives drunk kills a family of 4 on the way home from the movies either, yet we don't let people drive drunk as a precaution anyhow. I guess in the end it comes down to "Is the risk worth the reward". If fracking does cause earthquakes is getting domestic oil worth it?

As long as they are small tremors like the ones we've been having then yes.

[Just the facts]

So we're basically in agreement, there are huge reserves. I thought you were trying to say there aren't.

Unless we end fracking, which is pretty unlikely, no matter how bad an idea it may turn out to be in the end.

Okay - I see what you are saying now. Me beef is with the people who think the initial level of production will go on for 20 or 30 years at each well the way a traditional oil well works.

[Richard at Remax]

Its only a matter of months now with production on some shallow horizontal wells we have been a part of. huge initial returns

[Bunty]

I inwardly chuckled and groaned all at the same time this morning when hearing the news report Governor Fallin say she didn't want to ban fracking until all the research was done, but she had no problem banning e-cigs with just the suspicion that they might be hazardous.

I look forward to NOT voting for her in November.

[Prunepicker]

I read this thread and blew a 7 Up through my nose. It hurt. It hurt very
much.

Who can I sue?

[Bunty]

I read this thread and blew a 7 Up through my nose. It hurt. It hurt very
much.

Who can I sue?

Why is that? Because you quite strongly feel only a poorly informed idiot would think Oklahoma oil field operations are causing the earthquakes?

[Plutonic Panda]

Why is that? Because you quite strongly feel only a poorly informed idiot would think Oklahoma oil field operations are causing the earthquakes?

I think it is because he knows all of this is premature and no official results have been finalized and nearly every person conducting any kind of study has a bias and we sit on a very large fault line and earthquakes are NOT foreign to Oklahoma and this report is made to look like it has been decided that earthquakes are the result of fracking when it CLEARLY says it MAY have been the result, yet people are jumping to conclusions.

[mkjeeves]

I think it is because he knows all of this is premature and no official results have been finalized and nearly every person conducting any kind of study has a bias and we sit on a very large fault line and earthquakes are NOT foreign to Oklahoma and this report is made to look like it has been decided that earthquakes are the result of fracking when it CLEARLY says it MAY have been the result, yet people are jumping to conclusions.

The report isn't about fracking. It's about waste-water injection wells.