Induced Seismicity

State regulations

Oklahoma

• Oklahoma Administrative Code, OAC 165:10 (2014)
• Oklahoma Corporation Commission’s directive on wells located within Areas of Interest for Induced Seismicity (2015)
• Oklahoma Corporation Commission’s Oil and Gas Disposal Well Volume Reduction Plan (2015)
• Oklahoma Corporation Commission’s Regional Earthquake Response Plan for Western Oklahoma (2016)
• Oklahoma Corporation Commission’s Regional Earthquake Response Plan for Central Oklahoma and Expansion of the Area of Interest (2016)

Texas

• Amendments to 16 Tex. Admin. Code § 3.9, relating to Disposal Wells, and § 3.46, relating to Fluid Injection into Productive Reservoirs (2014)

Ohio

• Executive Order 2012-09K as an emergency amendment of the Ohio Administrative Code to prevent future induced seismicity from occurring associated with Class II injection wells
• Emergency amendments of rules 1501:9-3-06 and 1501:9-3-07 of the Ohio Administrative Code (2012)

Arkansas

• Final Rule H-1 – Class II Disposal and Class II Commercial Disposal Well Permit Application Procedures (moratorium) (2012)

Colorado

• COGCC Rules 303, 324B, 325, 326, 706, 707, and 712

Kansas

• Kansas Dept. of Health and Environment, Art. 46 – Underground Injection Control Regulations (2011)
• Kansas Seismic Action Plan (Kansas Dept. of Health and Environment, amended in 2015)

California

• California Code of Regulations – 14 CCR § 1785.1 – Monitoring and evaluation of seismic activity in the vicinity of hydraulic fracturing

Illinois

• Hydraulic Fracturing Regulatory Act – 225 Ill. Comp. Stat. 732/1-96
• Illinois Administrative Code - 62 Ill. Admin. Code 240.796

Industry guidelines

• Induced Seismicity Mitigation Plan (Alta Rock Energy, Inc. 2011)
• Investigation of observed seismicity in the Horn River Basin (British Columbia Oil & Gas Commission, 2012)
• CAPP Hydraulic Fracturing Operating Practice: anomalous induced seismicity, assessment, monitoring, mitigation and response (Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, 2012)
• Preese Hall Shale Gas Fracturing, Review and Recommendations for Induced Seismicity Mitigation (UK Department of Energy and Climate Change, 2012)
• Protocol for Addressing Induced Seismicity Associated with Enhanced Geothermal Systems (U.S. Department of Energy, 2012)
• Good practice guidelines for the development of shale oil and gas (Open Government Partnership Report No. 489, 2013)
• Technical Considerations Associated With Risk Management of Potential Induced Seismicity in Injection Operations (ExxonMobil, 2013)
• Induced Seismicity Potential in Energy Technologies (National Research Council, 2013)

Case law

• Sierra Club v. Chesapeake Operating, LLC, Devon Energy Production Co. LP, and New Dominion, LLC
  • In the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, docket no. 5:16-cv-00134
    • Complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief under 42 U.S.C. § 6972(a)(1)(B) (February 16, 2016) (Sierra Club filed a lawsuit alleging that defendants contributed to induced seismicity in the state of Oklahoma)
• Sandra Ladra v. New Dominion LLC
  • In the Supreme Court of Oklahoma, docket no. 113396
    • Oklahoma Supreme Court opinion (June 30, 2015) (the Oklahoma Supreme Court reversed and remanded a district court’s ruling)
  • In the District Court of Lincoln County, Oklahoma, docket no. CJ-2014-115
    • Order denying Defendants’ motions to dismiss (December 18, 2015) (Oklahoma District Court denies motion to dismiss seismic claim lawsuit by rejecting statute of limitations defense)
    • Order granting Defendant’s motion to dismiss plaintiff’s complaint (October 16, 2014) (the court contended that only the Oklahoma Corporation Commission had jurisdiction to hear the case. The case was assigned to the Oklahoma Supreme Court in December 2014)
    • Petition (August 4, 2014) (Sandra Ladra filed a lawsuit against New Dominion LLC for seismic damages claims in Oklahoma)
• Jennifer Lin Cooper v. New Dominion LLC
  • In the District Court of Lincoln County, Oklahoma, docket no. CJ-2015-24
    • Class Action Petition (February 10, 2015) (Cooper filed a lawsuit along with 25 unnamed companies against New Dominion LLC and Spess Oil Company for seismic damages claims in Oklahoma)
• Finn et al. v. EOG Resources, Inc. (July 30, 2013)
  • In the District Court of Johnson County, Texas, docket no. C2013-00343

Publications

Government agencies

• Minimizing and Managing Potential Impacts of Injection-Induced Seismicity from Class II Disposal Wells: Practical Approaches (Underground Injection Control National Technical Workgroup, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2013)
• Incorporating Induced Seismicity in the 2014 United States National Seismic Hazard Model – Results of 2014 Workshop and Sensitivity Studies (U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, 2015)
• One-Year Seismic Hazard Forecast for the Central and Eastern United States from Induced and Natural Earthquakes (2016)

Scientific studies

• Recommendations for Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis: Guidance on Uncertainty and Use of Experts, R. J. Budnitz et al, U.S. NRC, NUREG/CR-6372, Vol. 2, 1997
• Two-year survey of earthquakes and injection/production wells in the Eagle Ford Shale, Texas, prior to the Mw4.8 20 October 2011, C. Frohlich and M. Brunt, University of Texas, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 2012
• Disposal of Hydrofracking Waste Fluid by Injection into Subsurface Aquifers Triggers Earthquake Swarm in Central Arkansas with Potential for Damaging Earthquake, S. Horton, Seismological Research Letters, 2012
• Modeling earthquake rate changes in Oklahoma and Arkansas: possible signatures of induced seismicity, A. L. Llenos and A. J. Michael, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 2013
• Induced seismicity associated with fluid injection into a deep well in Youngstown, Ohio, W.Y. Kim, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 2013

• Unintentional Seismicity Induced by Hydraulic Fracturing, Shawn Maxwell, CSEG Recorder (Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists), 2013
• Induced Seismicity: The Potential for Triggered Earthquakes in Kansas, R. C. Buchanan, Kansas Geological Survey, 2014
• The 2001-present induced earthquake sequence in the Raton Basin of Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado, J.L. Rubinstein et al, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 2014
• Characterization of an earthquake sequence triggered by hydraulic fracturing in Harrison County, Ohio, P. A. Friberg et al, Seismological Research Letters, 2014
• Searching for Solutions to Induced Seismicity, Trent Jacobs, Journal of Petroleum Technology, 2014
• Increased seismicity in Kansas,  R. C. Buchanan, The Leading Edge, 2015
• Oklahoma’s recent earthquakes and saltwater disposal, F. Rall Walsh III and Mark D. Zoback, Journal Science Advances, 2015
• Efforts to monitor and characterize the recent increasing seismicity in central Oklahoma, D.E. McNamara et al, The Leading Edge, 2015
• Myths and Facts on Wastewater Injection, Hydraulic Fracturing, Enhanced Oil Recovery, and Induced Seismicity, J. L. Rubinstein and A. B. Mahani, Seismological Research Letters, 2015
• Causal factors for seismicity near Azle, Texas, M. J. Hornbach et al, Nature Communications, 2015
• Earthquakes Induced by Hydraulic Fracturing in Poland Township, Ohio, R. J. Skoumal et al, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Vol. 105, No. 1, 2015
• Distinguishing induced seismicity from natural seismicity in Ohio: Demonstrating the utility of waveform template matching, R. J. Skoumal, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 2015
• A century of oil-field operations and earthquakes in the greater Los Angeles Basin, southern California, E. Hauksson et al, The Leading Edge, 2015
• High-rate injection is associated with the increase in U.S. mid-continent seismicity, M. Weingarten et al, Science Mag, 2015
• A Century of Induced Earthquakes in Oklahoma?, Susan E. Hough and Morgan Page, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Vol. 105, No. 6, 2015
• Discrete element modeling of fluid injection-induced seismicity and activation of nearby fault, J. S. Yoon et al., NRC Research Press, 2015

Other publications

•  A White Paper Summarizing a Special Session on Induced Seismicity, Ground Water Research & Education Foundation, 2013
• White Paper II Summarizing a Special Session on Induced Seismicity, Ground Water Research & Education Foundation, (2013)
• Human-Induced Earthquakes from Deep-Well Injection: A Brief Overview, P. Folger and M. Tiemann, Congressional Research Service, 2015
• Potential Injection-Induced Seismicity Associated with Oil & Gas Development: A Primer on Technical and Regulatory Considerations Informing Risk Management and Mitigation, States First, an Initiative of the IOGCC & GWPC, 2015
• On Liability Issues Concerning Induced Seismicity in Hydraulic Fracturing Treatments and at Injection Disposal Wells: What Petroleum Engineers should know (this paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Hydraulic Fracturing Technology Conference, Texas), K. Hall et al, Society of Petroleum Engineers, 2015
• Induced seismicity and the potential for liability under U.S. law, D. A. Cypser and S. D. Davis, Elsevier Science, Tectonophysics 289 (1998) 239-255
• Induced Seismicity, Injection Disposal, and Hydraulic Fracturing, Keith B. Hall, 2015 (this paper is based in part on Induced Seismicity: An Energy Lawyer’s Guide to Legal Issues and the Causes of Man-Made Earthquakes, which was prepared by the author at the 61^st Annual Rock Mountain Mineral Law Institute in Anchorage, Alaska on July 16, 2015.)
• Injection Wells and Earthquakes: Quantifying the Risk, Energy In Depth (2015)
• The Findings, New Brunswick Commission on Hydraulic Fracturing – Volume 1 (February 2016)
• Potential Economic, Health and Environmental Impacts of Shale Gas Development, New Brunswick Commission on Hydraulic Fracturing – Volume II (February 2016)
• Compendium of Mitigation Options for Potential Human and Environmental Impacts of Shale Gas Development, New Brunswick Commission on Hydraulic Fracturing – Volume III (February 2016)