The Texas Railroad Commission, which oversees the state's oil and gas industry, has sent investigators to west Texas following a 5.4 magnitude earthquake near Midland.
Workers at a fracking rig in Midland. Studies have linked disposal of fracking wastewater with an increase in seismic activity in Texas, and the Texas Railroad Commission is now investigating a 5.4 magnitude quake that struck West Texas this week.
The Railroad Commission earlier this month directed producers to reduce injection volumes following aThe Friday afternoon earthquake, about 315 miles west of Dallas, resulted in no injuries and only minimal damage, including no apparent damage to oil and gas wells in the area, said Midland County Emergency Management Coordinator Justin Bunch.
“The only thing we've had reported was minor cosmetic damage, cracks in sheetrock, stuff like that” to homes within the city, Bush said Saturday.The earthquake was preliminarily rated a 5.3 magnitude, the fourth strongest in Texas history, then upgraded by the U.S. Geological Survey to 5.4, tying it with the Mentone temblor for third strongest in Texas.
Earthquakes in the south-central United States have been linked to oil and gas production, particularly the underground injection of wastewater, which is a byproduct of oil and gas production. In neighboring Oklahoma, thousands of earthquakes of varying magnitudes have been recorded in the past decade,
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