Texas begins investigation into oil drilling due to earthquakes
The Texas Railroad Commission, the oil regulator in America's top oil-producing state, has opened an investigation after a series of earthquakes hit the Permian Basin last week.
Last week, dozens of tremors were recorded in counties near oil and gas operations in Texas.
West Texas was hit by several earthquakes, the largest of which measured 5.1 on the Richter scale.
After the series of tremors, the Railroad Commission is investigating wells where operators injected saltwater from oil wells.
So-called disposal wells within a two-and-a-half-mile radius of the cluster of tremors in the Camp Springs area are being investigated, Patty Ramon, a spokeswoman for the state agency, told Bloomberg .
The area is located about 100 miles northeast of the city of Midland, in the heart of Texas' oil- and gas-rich Permian Basin.
“In an effort to reduce seismicity that could be caused by underground injection of produced water, several operators in the area have converted deep saltwater disposal wells to shallow wells over the past year,” the RRC said in a statement.
“RRC inspectors are inspecting saltwater disposal wells within a two-and-a-half-mile radius of this week's cluster of earthquakes, and the RRC will evaluate next steps that can be taken to mitigate the earthquakes. We will continue to take the necessary measures to protect the environment and residents of the area."
The dozens of earthquakes in Scurry County, about 60 miles west-northwest of Abilene, have raised questions about the role of the oil and gas industry in these events.
“West Texas, and particularly the Permian Basin, has seen a significant increase in seismicity since around 2019,” Justin Rubinstein, a research geophysicist with Earthquake Science, told Houston Public Media, a service of the University of Houston. Center at the United States Geological Survey.
“We believe these earthquakes are caused by human activity, particularly related to oil and gas operations,” Rubinstein said, referring to last week's increase in seismic activity.
Limitations on extraction through the Shale gas and oil system could have strong repercussions on the price of hydrocarbons, and not just in the USA.
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The article Texas begins oil drilling probe due to earthquakes comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/il-texas-inizia-unindagine-sullestrazione-del-petrolio-a-causa-dei-terremoti/ on Tue, 30 Jul 2024 05:15:14 +0000.