New Mexico works ‘proactively’ with oil and gas after earthquakes tied to fracking in West Texas

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | October 23, 2019 | Adrian Hedden

[CedarDave]

Hydraulic fracturing could be responsible for an increase in earthquakes in the Permian Basin in West Texas, as oil and gas operations increase during a boom in the region.

A study published Tuesday by the University of Texas at Austin suggested the practice, known as fracking, could be linked to earthquakes in the region just across the state border to southeast New Mexico where oil and gas operations also increased dramatically in recent years.

Research targeted the Delaware Basin, on the western side of the Permian in Texas and New Mexico which now produces more than 5 million barrels of oil per day.

"Our results [a summary of the study published by the American Geological Union] suggest some earthquakes in west Texas are more likely due to hydraulic-fracturing than salt-water disposal.”

The research was troubling to Camilla Feibelman, director of the Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter, an environmentalist group based in Albuquerque.

She said the suggested link between fracking and earthquakes in West Texas warranted further research in New Mexico, where seismicity was traditionally associated with waste water injection.

OCD Director Adrienne Sandoval said the agency hasn’t yet seen any indication of seismic events caused by oil and gas in New Mexico in its data.

But the State is working “proactively” she said, to monitor for such incidents from both fracking operations and waste water injection, as oil and gas production in the state increased by about 400 percent in recent years.

“We’re not doing the same thing (as other states),” she said. “The Devonian appears to be the safest. That’s what we’ve been requiring.”

Despite a lack of incidents, Sandoval said the State is actively monitoring for earthquakes either caused by SWDs or fracking.

She said as production continues to grow, monitoring and proactive measures become more essential.

[CedarDave]

The recent study was conducted by the earthquake monitoring system TexNet and the Center for Integrated Seismicity (CISR) at the UTAUS Jackson School of Geosciences. It suggested for the first time that fracking could be directly tied to the quakes based on their proximity to and timing of fracking operations, and not wastewater injection. The article presents in detail the details of the methodology and analysis used to present this conclusion.

I can just see the chicken-little enviro-fascist types in Santa Fe using this as another cudgel to hammer the industry that all fossil fuel extraction must stop to protect the planet.

[CedarDave]

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[Steely Tom]

From now on, fracking is going to be blamed for every earthquake.

[tomkat]

.. earthquakes tied to fracking in West Texas

Bullshit

[Seruzawa]

A study. Lol. Figures lie and liars figure.

Lets see the data and methodology.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Oklahoma recognized seismic activity as the cause of occasional quakes.
Not saltwater disposal.

[mewzilla]

...by the University of Texas at Austin ...

Anyone taking anything coming out of there seriously needs his/her head examined.

[Bonemaker]

Yeah, fracking caused the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

[LegendHasIt]

Earthquakes in Texas?

I can tell you the cause:

So many leftists are moving there that the earth itself is shaking with disgust and fear.

[rktman]

Nah. Glow bull warming causing muvver erf to s-pand. Thus, erf quakez. 🚽

[Bonemaker]

[E. Pluribus Unum]

If it weren’t for fake science the Left would have no science at all.

[conservativeimage]

the article was greyed out for me. did they say what the earthquakes measured and how many there were?

[EQAndyBuzz]

That was caused by the Gilgamesh. They needed the resources to get home. Oops....

[AmericanCheeseFood]

Soo.. what’s the reasons for the Albuquerque area earthquakes in the late 1800’s that were bigger?

Same crap as climate panic.

[CedarDave]

Albuquerque and the entire Rio Grande valley in the area are along a earthquake fault line that historically has produced measureable quakes in the recent past. See this link:
https://geoinfo.nmt.edu/hazards/earthquakes/home.html

[CedarDave]

You might try this link:
https://www.currentargus.com/story/news/local/2019/10/21/earthquakes-linked-oil-and-gas-fracking-texas-study/3997627002/

Or search the UT reference in my comment to the article.

[COBOL2Java]

OCD Director Adrienne Sandoval said ...

What the heck is OCD?

Oh, I see. You heavily edited the original story, and left that detail (OCD = Oil Conservation Division) out.

At least, Reader's Digest magazine knows how to properly compress stories so you don't wind up scratching your head...

[AmericanCheeseFood]

Yup, that’s something we need to not look at.. gotta make panic!

The power hungry that want fear of tech to set in need us to think that earthquakes come from, in comparison to huge fault lines, 5 to 30 inch in circumference holes that don’t even reach as deep as a fault line.

[Mr. Lucky]

Ordinarily, I would agree with you. But, in this instance, bullshit may be too polite.