Oilman: Science not in on cause of Oklahoma’s earthquakes

In "Earthquake State," "Fault Lines" travels to Oklahoma, where earthquakes are now a daily occurrence, to find out what is behind the sharp rise in seismic activity. The film airs on Sunday, Dec. 13, at 9 p.m. Eastern time/6 p.m. Pacific on Al Jazeera America. | Click here to find Al Jazeera in your area.

Since 2009, more than two earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 on the Richter scale have rumbled Oklahoma each day, on average. The state is now more seismically active than even California.

Scientists believe they’ve found the culprit: When oil and gas are extracted from the earth in Oklahoma, water comes up to the surface, as well. Once the wastewater is extracted from the valuable energy sources, it’s injected back into the ground through a series of wells. It’s estimated that 10 times more water than oil is retrieved during exploration. And with its oil production growing, more water is being pulled out—and pushed back underground, mostly in the Arbuckle formation, sedimentary rock that goes down 7,000 feet below the surface of central Oklahoma.

Among U.S. states, Oklahoma is fourth in oil production and third in natural gas. The U.S. Geological Survey made the connection between the earthquakes and wastewater injection as early as 2012, but still little action has been taken by the state of Oklahoma’s governor, Mary Fallin. While seismologists warn that a magnitude 6.0 earthquake could be around the corner—which in terms of the amount of energy released would be more than 30,000 times the strength of the tremors the state currently experiences—Fallin and the oil and gas industry appear in lockstep, calling for more data to definitively pinpoint the earthquakes’ cause.

Kim Hatfield, vice chairman of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association (OIPA) and the president of Crawley Petroleum, said that the scientific consensus isn’t as clear cut as it could be. According to Hatfield, scientists might agree that wastewater injection correlates to increased earthquakes, but they’re still debating how exactly it happens.

“Fault Lines” sat down with Hatfield to talk about what, if anything, the state and industry should do about the growing frequency of earthquakes in Oklahoma. An edited version of the conversation follows.

Fault Lines: Can you describe the relationship between oil and the state of Oklahoma? 

Hatfield: When you look at the University of Oklahoma or the institutions in Tulsa, virtually every building was funded by the early day oil pioneers. Roughly a quarter of the state's budget comes from direct taxes on the oil industry, not including taxes on the employees of the companies. One in six jobs in Oklahoma is in the industry. So it goes back even prior to statehood. And the wildcatter mentality is just part of our culture.

We spoke to Austin Holland of the Oklahoma Geological Survey, and he believes that the increase in earthquakes is actually unprecedented in geological history. That there's really never been anything like this that we know of. 

Well, when you say geologic history, there's a whole lotta geologic history.  And we actually know very little of it.                     

We understand that the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association has worked with the Oklahoma Geological Survey. What was the nature of that relationship?

Three years ago, we realized what we know about seismicity is far outweighed by what we don't know.  But one of the things we did know was that that injecting [wastewater] near basement faults was a bad idea. So we wanted to make sure we weren't siting injection wells near basement faults. 

To do that, you need a map of those faults. So who supplies that map? Well, in this case it's the Oklahoma Geological Survey. And so we went to the survey and said, "We'd like a good fault map of Oklahoma." Survey says, "Well, we have a fault map but it's not very good for your purposes. And to be able to have the information you need, we would need a great deal of three-dimensional seismic data, which we don't have and don't have the capability of manipulating if we did have." And the industry says, "Okay. We've got the seismic data."  So we have three different entities each with a piece of the puzzle.  And none of us can do what needs to be done by ourselves.

From the industry standpoint, you know, our 3-D data is like the crown jewels. We spend millions of dollars to get it, then more millions of dollars to interpret it, which is another art in and of itself. And we don't share that with anybody. That's our secret sauce.  That's our competitive advantage. 

So we reached an agreement that industry would provide the interpreted data to the Oklahoma Geologic Survey, and—because of its focus as an academic research group—they were able to take this information and compile it into a fault map, but not disclose that this fault was identified by this company so their competitors wouldn't be able to use that information for a competitive advantage.

We've seen Holland's latest fault map. There are faults all over this state.

This state looks like a piece of glass that has been shattered. We're not like California.  California is a margin where the west coast is continually moving west. You have the plate boundaries, and the movement of those plates causes continual activity. Here, in the center of the country, we're actually being compressed from the east and the west.

So faults that are north and south, like the Nemaha Ridge—a major structure that runs from down in Texas all the way up into Kansas and is the source of a lot of the traps for oil and gas—is not a sensitive fault because the forces actually work to keep it pinned together. Faults that are problematical are the ones that are basically east/west or northwest to southeast or southwest to northeast because those forces are acting to cause them to slip.

And so this builds up over a period of time, and what we're experiencing are triggered events. This is the buildup and release of energy and this was going to happen at some point anyway. But for some reason it's being triggered now.

Does the OIPA not have a position on what's causing the increased seismicity

Part of the problem is that there is more than one reason. You know, certainly the injection of wastewater is one thing that we have to look at. We also have normally occurring events. Then we have induced seismicity from other causes. 

But the preponderance of the seismicity is being caused by the injection walls, right?  That's what the U.S. Geological Survey has said so for quite a long time. And all the peer-reviewed papers have said it. And even the governor has said it, at this point, right—that it's injecting near faults that's causing all the earthquakes?

I know certainly the USGS has taken that position. Yes.

Austin Holland's taken that position now, as well. Has the OIPA not taken that position?      

I wouldn't say that the OIPA has taken a position. We have a number of member organizations, and I would say that there is a whole gamut of opinions on that. 

What's the counterpoint to injection wells being the source of the problem?

There are people that say, "Guys, we were doing this for 60 years with no problem.” 

Doing what for 60 years?

Injecting wastewater into the Arbuckle Formation.

But at nowhere near the volumes that's happening now though, right?  It's doubled in the last few years.                

Actually back during the '80s we had very high volumes of wastewater injection. In localized areas, there's certainly more. 

There is a lot of correlation between injection and events on a very broad scale. However, if you zoom in, I can show you areas where there is injection and seismicity, I can show you where there is injection with no seismicity and I can show you areas where there's seismicity and no injection.  So while it's easy to hit it with a very broad brush, when it comes down to actually analyzing it and understanding the mechanisms, it is much more complex.

Just to be clear, we have heard the association say that, "Oklahoma's always been earthquake country."

That is correct.             

So last year there were 585 earthquakes that were reported. That's more than the last 35 years combined. Does it seem disingenuous to say, "Well, it's always been earthquake country," when what the state seems to be experiencing now is radically different than what it's experienced in the previous 35 years?

It's easy to draw that conclusion—doesn't necessarily mean that it's right. We think that there can be a connection and we're actively studying that. We're not ignoring it, we're not saying, "No, there's no way." But we're actively engaged in researching this and getting to the bottom of it. Because it is important.