The persistent presence of low magnitude earthquakes in the Delaware Basin, namely in Reeves County, is prompting Texas regulators to enact new policies for reviewing disposal well permits. The Texas Railroad Commission (RRC), the state agency charged with regulating the exploration, production, and transportation of oil and gas, acknowledges that the landscape is about toRead more
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Alaska’s magnitude-7 quake on November 30th caused major disruptions in and around Anchorage—knocking out power, shaking buildings and breaking major roadways apart. While there have been no reports of fatalities or serious injuries thus far, more than 1,000 aftershocks have rocked the region over the weekend—some felt up to 400 miles away. Earthquake activity recorderRead more
A magnitude 4.0 earthquake recorded northeast of Amarillo on October 20th has seismologists asking an increasingly familiar question: was the earthquake a result of naturally occurring shifts in fault systems? Or, was it induced by oil and gas activities in the region? Earthquakes are not new to the Texas Panhandle. The region has aRead more
If Permian oil and gas production is going to continue to thrive, operators need reliable and affordable access to more water management solutions. Oil executives from major Permian operators shared this common consensus at a recent energy summit at Rice University in Houston, calling water disposal from oilfield operations one of the biggest challenges theyRead more
As water demand keeps rising and viable supplies dry out, creative approaches are required to make smarter use, and reuse, of existing water. This is the mission of the new Center for Materials for Water and Energy SysTems (M-WET), a multi-university research center headquartered in The University of Texas at Austin’s Cockrell School of Engineering.Read more
Laura Capper of EnergyMakers Advisory Group will share findings of her firm’s report on Disposal Well Pressurization and Operational Risk Management in Upstream Oil and Gas with the San Antonio chapter of the Society of Independent Professional Earth Scientists (SIPES). Her talk, entitled “The Formation Pressure Problem (and its Impact on the Permian and Beyond),”Read more
The rebound in oil prices has spurred a dramatic upswing in drilling activity in many parts of the country—and New Mexico is no exception. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), New Mexico’s side of the Permian basin is currently home to about 30,000 wells, with more wells being drilled every day. The practiceRead more
In Kingfisher County, the heart of Oklahoma’s oil patch, the summer of 2018 has seen concerns about produced water handling turn into a heated fight between state regulators and oil and gas companies. The heart of the conflict centers on the use of water in temporary piping (most typically, flexible lay-flat hoses) that are placedRead more
EnergyMakers is now in the Salt Water Disposal and Underground Injection Data-on-Demand business! If you are hungry to understand the big picture but frustrated with the lack of minable data, this offering is for you. EnergyMakers has expanded its consulting and analytic offerings to include comprehensive and current SWD data for leading basins, including bothRead more
When earthquakes are discussed on the news, reporters always state the location of the quake’s epicenter with such certainty. But in fact, there is a large margin of error associated with earthquake locations derived from then-available seismic monitoring systems. As EnergyMakers Advisory Group’s Laura Capper writes in her recent article in Shale Play WaterRead more