More than a year ago, the Railroad Commission of Texas made a new rule for oil and gas companies in areas of far West Texas: No more injecting wastewater from hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, below the surface.
Wastewater injection has been linked to earthquakes. The Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas in the state, made the decision after a series of fairly sizable earthquakes in the area.
All of the companies affected by the commission’s new rule complied except for one: Blackbuck Resources. Amanda Drane, energy investigative reporter for the Houston Chronicle, spoke to the Texas Standard about why the company has held out.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: Tell us about this one company that appears to be flaunting the Railroad Commission’s decision here.
Amanda Drane: The company is called Blackbuck. They dispose of oil companies’ wastewater.
They have a commercial waste disposal well. And this well is in an area where the Railroad Commission has said every company in this area needs to stop injecting wastewater deep underground in this particular area where there are earthquakes.
What about the relationship between these injection wells and earthquakes? Has that not been pretty clearly established by the science by now?
The science is clearly established that the deep formations where deep injection – and I would tell you that there’s a difference between deep injection and shallow injection.
Shallow injection continues, but where the companies are injecting into deep underground formations, where the formations are directly connected with what’s called the basement where earthquakes happen, there’s a pressure increase associated with that deep injection. And that pressure increase is causing the faults to slip.
I noticed that you’re being very careful about how you’re describing this, because I guess that sort of hits the crux of this issue. This one company, Blackbuck, is saying, because of how we do our injection of this fracking wastewater we shouldn’t be bound by this decision from the Texas Railroad Commission.
That’s right. Its argument is that its well is isolated from the formations where there’s that connection between the faults and the formations. And so they’re saying, our well is geologically isolated, and therefore we could not be contributing to this problem.
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There was a series of seismic activity in this area that prompted the Railroad Commission to issue this rule in the first place. What’s happened since issuing that directive?
We’ve seen more strong earthquakes in that area. Last month there was a 5.0, and there was a 4.7 that closely followed a few days later.
There’s concern that strong earthquakes have continued despite the Railroad Commission’s suspension of permits there.
And we should note, I guess, that Blackbuck has not complied with that directive from the Railroad Commission. What is their explanation for why it’s okay for them to continue to inject wastewater? Do they see this as not a formal rule that would apply to them? Is that their theory?
Blackbuck is exploiting a process by which they can appeal a permit suspension and during the time where their appeal is being considered by an administrative law judge, during this hearings process, they are legally allowed to continue operation.
I see. So they have already made their case to an administrative law judge. Is there any timeline for when the judge might rule, and are there any obvious legal questions that could determine the outcome?
I’m not sure about the timeline. The cases have been made, and it’s up to the judge at this point to direct the timeline.
What’s at issue here is how likely it is that Blackbuck is contributing to the earthquake problem in that area. The Railroad Commission is allowed to suspend permits when it believes that it is “likely” that a company and their injection there is contributing to seismicity.
