Opinion: How does wastewater from oil and gas production cause earthquakes?
Crew members are busy putting up drilling rigs near Midland.On the cloudy afternoon of Dec. 15, I was in Houston speaking to a colleague on the phone in Midland when a 3.6 magnitude quake shook the oil-rich town. She nearly fell out of her chair, quickly ending the conversation by saying, “I need to check on my children.” It was one of 15,000 earthquakes to hit West Texas’ Permian Basin in the last five years.
With 5,200 West Texas quakes in 2021, double what was observed in 2020, this is no longer a theoretical discussion. Earthquakes are now affecting West Texas cities spanning Pecos to Big Spring, often weekly. The Texas Railroad Commission, the principal regulatory body for Texas oil and gas, has responded in a pragmatic and data-driven way by severely limiting wastewater disposal in parts of six counties, impacting how millions of barrels of oil are produced daily.
The commission also developed stringent commercial recycling permitting standards known as Division 6-H11. These rules are essential because they protect West Texas’ aquifers, waterways and ecosystems from produced water contamination. To understand these actions, it’s important to understand how Permian Basin operators have managed billions of barrels of fresh and wastewater over the last decade, and how it has evolved.
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