THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY AT IT’S VERY BEST!

THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY AT IT’S VERY BEST!

(Science Daily, Cliff Frohlick, Terrence Henry)

(Moss Buchele, Dave Fehling, Moneynews, Michele Smith, Wei Gan)

(Mihai Andrei, Russian Times, Frazer Chronicle)

I was flabbergasted to read about a series of low magnitude earthquakes in Texas…..I unearthed the information from a very interesting place, the Russian Times…..that was published on November 30, 2013. The thrust of the story was about the Massachusetts legislature considering a 10-year moratorium on fracking for natural gas in the state.

The impetus of the controversial move comes on the heels of a reported rash of earthquakes in Texas over the past six or seven years. The Massachusetts fracking moratorium is designed to protect the state’s drinking water from possible contamination and thus “ensures that the health and prosperity of our communities is maintained” according to the bill’s sponsor, Democratic state Representative Peter Kocot.

Not knowing diddle-squat about earthquakes…..(I’m sure most people are in the same boat as I) I decided to access whatever information that I could about the subject…..Boy, was I in for a surprise! Stuff like, according to the United States Geological Survey agency which monitories earthquakes on a daily basis, that yesterday, November 30, 2013, there were 65 measurable quakes.

I thought maybe yesterday was just a busy day for quakes, but I was wrong, in the past seven days there have been 524 quakes, in the month of November there were 2,940, and the year to date total is a staggering 20,432…..I had absolutely no idea.

The United States Geological Survey, (USGS) has been around for a hundred twenty four years, (established back in 1879) and was charged with “classification of the public lands, and examination of the geological structure, mineral resources, and production of the national domain.” This task was driven by the need to inventory the vast lands added to the United States by the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and the Mexican-American war in 1848.

Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, the agency has more than 8500 employees with an annual budget of $1.1 billion, is administered by Suzette Kimball (acting director) and its parent agency is the Department of the Interior. In addition the USGS has major offices near Lakewood, Colorado, at the Denver
Federal Center, and Menlo Park, California.

THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR OVER 30 YEARS AND IS A THREAT

In a study done by Cliff Frohlick and Wei Gan, in the area of northwest Taxes where three large oil and gas fields, the Cogdell field, the Salt Creek field, and the Scurry Area Canyon Reef Operations Committee unit (SACROC) which all have produced petroleum since the 1950’s, a series of small quakes occurred in that region between 1979 and 1980.

The study by the two geologists documented another series of small earthquakes between 2006 and 2011. Not only do petroleum drilling companies inject fracking materials into prospective oil well sites, they inject CO2 to boost petroleum production. Known as Enhanced Oil Recovery, (CO2 EOR) operators began significantly increasing CO2 starting in 2004.

Using high-resolution temporary network seismometers, Frohlick and Gan identified 93 earthquakes in the Cogdell area only from March 2009 to December 2010…..three of which were greater than magnitude 3, and a magnitude 4.4 occurring in Cogdell in September 2011. Using data on injections and extractions of fluid and gases, they concluded that the earthquakes were correlated with the increase in CO2 EOR in Cogdell.

A worst case scenario is connected with the SCROC field…..much of the field lays above the Ogallala Aquifer, which occupies the High Plains of the United States of the United States, extending from western Texas to South Dakota. The Ogallala is the leading geological formation in what is known as the High Plaines. The system of water underlies about 174,000 square miles, is located in eight states.

The depth to the water table of the Ogallala varies from 50 to 300 feet below the land surface. The saturated thickness also varies greatly, although the average saturated thickness is about 200 feet, it does exceed 1000 feet in central Nebraska and is only one-tenth that in much of Western Texas. Both the saturated thickness and the areal extend of the Ogallala Aquifer is greater in Nebraska, the state accounts for two-thirds of the volume of the groundwater, followed by Texas, 10% and Kansas, also 10%.

I’m not a geologist, but it seems to me as if continued earthquakes might cause some of the saturated earth and water of the Ogallala Aquifer to collapse deeper into the earth and actually be lost. Earthquakes might work as a funnel, and allow a goodly percentage of the life-giving water from the aquifer to escape to the lower regions in the earth.

There seems to be whole bunches of double speak regarding the possibilities that ground water could be jeopardized either now, or in the coming years of further development under the ground of Texas. Sealed strata, the section overlying the productive oil zone, are Permian-age strata, and were formed millions of years ago during the great extinction of 90% of all life on earth.

I really don’t feel any better whenever somebody is talking about the strength of rock formations that are millions of years old, and apparently their going to have to combat, and stand up to numerous earthquakes that can measure as much as 4.4 in magnitude.

GOD ONLY KNOWS…..GOD, THE TAX-MAN AND THE OIL COMPANIES

There are over 500 oil drilling and explorational companies registered in Texas. There are over 216,000 oil wells, functioning and some that are defunct or not being worked at the present time. New well permits are applied for every day.

Hydraulic fracking, (a drilling process that injects millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals under high pressure into a well that actually cracks rock and releases natural gas and oil) has only been known to rarely cause earthquakes. But the disposal of the drilling water that is associated with the fracking process has been tracked scientifically linked to earthquakes.

The liquid is re-entered into the ground by specifically drilled wells deep underground to deposit the spent water, sand and chemicals from the franking process definitely been linked to earthquake activity. So in a sense “fracking” does cause earthquakes. There are 50,000 storage wells in use today that service the 216,000 active wells.

Every day of the week thousands of gallons of chemical-laced water are introduced into the ground from one of the 50,000 service wells designed for this purpose only. According to hydrolicfracturing.com each well uses about 4.5 million gallons of fracking solution during the course of a wells life.

To inject this much water, sand and chemicals into the ground is like playing Russian roulette with a loaded pistol…..your gonna lose. Recent research has found definitive links to these disposal wells and earthquakes…..especially in Texas.

What can be done…..”how the hell do I know” I’m just a lowly blogger who stumbled across this story while scanning the Russian Times. I can say this though…..I’m not moving to Texas anytime soon; I think that they’ve got at least three problems, contaminated ground water, earthquakes…..and the home of former president George W. Bush.

HAVE A NICE DAY!