Earthquake Insurance - should those using injection wells pay?

[swake]

Yet we keep electing officials that seem to have contempt for us.

Yes, officals that protect us from things like Obama Care death panels and Mooslims but not heart disease, ignorance and earthquakes.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Yet we keep electing officials that seem to have contempt for us.

Because the less educated a society becomes, the more stupid stuff it does. 

[heironymouspasparagus]

Got the letter from my insurance company - says they do cover earthquake damage from injection wells.  And acts of God as well as acts of Man.  Guess I will have to stay with them....

[cannon_fodder]

Got the letter from my insurance company - says they do cover earthquake damage from injection wells.  And acts of God as well as acts of Man.  Guess I will have to stay with them....

Mine said the same thing, AAA.

[Townsend]

Mine said the same thing, AAA.

Same - USAA

[heironymouspasparagus]

I am betting it is the "bottom feeder" companies that are sleazing out on this... Progressive, GEICO, General, Nationwide, Liberty Mutual...those kind.  Anyone who can won't be with them anyway.

[Townsend]

Companies ask Oklahoma Judge to Toss Earthquake Lawsuit

http://publicradiotulsa.org/post/companies-ask-oklahoma-judge-toss-earthquake-lawsuit

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Two energy companies have asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by an Oklahoma woman who claims their practices caused an earthquake that injured her.

Lincoln County District Judge Cynthia Ferrell Ashwood took the matter under advisement after Wednesday's hearing.

Sandra Ladra says a 5.6-magnitude earthquake near her hometown of Prague in 2011 was the result of companies pumping wastewater from the drilling process deep underground.

Ladra is suing Spess Oil in Cleveland, Oklahoma, New Dominion LLC based in Tulsa and 25 unnamed parties.

Scientists have linked wastewater injection with a sharp uptick of earthquakes in Oklahoma during the past few years.

[cannon_fodder]

Lincoln County doesn't scan briefs in, which is too bad... but I'm guessing it is down the list of my predictability chart:  "You can't prove it was OUR well that did this."

[Tulsa Zephyr]

I am betting it is the "bottom feeder" companies that are sleazing out on this... Progressive, GEICO, General, Nationwide, Liberty Mutual...those kind.  Anyone who can won't be with them anyway.

Been with Liberty Mutual for years.  Never had a problem with them.  Got my letter from them today confirming their Earthquake Coverage Endorsement WILL cover damage resulting from hydraulic fracturing or drilling.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Been with Liberty Mutual for years.  Never had a problem with them.  Got my letter from them today confirming their Earthquake Coverage Endorsement WILL cover damage resulting from hydraulic fracturing or drilling.

Lucky!   Good to hear that.


Only had one interaction with LM and it was disgusting how they weaseled for months.  Their driver at fault.  All the ads they have on TV are direct lies contrasted to the way they tried to handle that claim.

[Townsend]

Strong Quake Near OKC Wakes Residents, Shakes Regulators and Lawmakers

https://stateimpact.npr.org/oklahoma/2015/12/30/strong-quake-near-okc-wakes-residents-shakes-regulators-and-lawmakers/

A strong earthquake that woke scores of residents in the Oklahoma City area before dawn Tuesday is shaking regulators and state lawmakers.

The 4.3-magnitude temblor recorded 5:39 a.m. near Edmond was felt as far away as Wichita, Kan., and was blamed for an outage that left 4,400 customers without electricity for an hour. The widely felt quake caps a record year for earthquakes in Oklahoma. As of this writing, 5,647 quakes have been recorded in Oklahoma in 2015.

Scientists have linked Oklahoma's earthquake boom, which started in 2009, to disposal wells used by the oil and gas industry. Oil and gas authorities at the Oklahoma Corporation Commission have responded by directing companies to shut down wells, reduce the depth of their operations, and have restricted the amount of waste fluid pumped underground.

The commission is preparing similar actions in response to the Dec. 29 quakes near Edmond, but has not finalized a plan, said spokesman Matt Skinner.

"The issue is complex, as the initial review of the data for the area in question has not identified any oil and gas wastewater disposal wells that are both high volume and in the state's deepest formation, a combination that researchers have identified as being at the highest risk for inducing earthquakes," he said in an emailed statement.

The Edmond area shook for hours after the initial quake and a 3.4-magnitude aftershock, The Oklahoman's Paul Monies reports:

By early evening, the USGS reported five more earthquakes in the Edmond area, including a 3.2-magnitude quake about 3:40 p.m.

There were no reports of injuries, although some nearby residents reported strong shaking and items falling from shelves or walls from the early morning quakes.

Edmond resident Dawne Sullivan said she felt aftershocks most of the day after her family was awakened by what she described as a loud explosion before sunrise Tuesday. Sullivan said she could hear items falling out the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. The power went out, and the family later realized a 15-foot brick chimney had fallen from the house and into the yard.

Inside the house, items had fallen off shelves and lampshades were knocked asunder. A large picture window had multiple cracks in it, Sullivan said.

The earthquake also triggered some political waves at the state Capitol, where Rep. Richard Morrissette, D-Oklahoma City, called for a moratorium on disposal wells in the Arbuckle formation, The Journal Record's Dale Denwalt reports:

The governor "has control of the drill bit here," Morrissette said in an emailed statement. "She has the executive authority to order a complete halt to produced water being pumped into any more wells that inject into the Arbuckle formation, not simply a reduction in the amount injected into wells near areas that have previously experienced a quake."

Republican Rep. Jason Murphey of Guthrie, who has pushed for earthquake-related legislation, voiced concern, too:

"When these quakes happen in a population center, it rattles the homes of energy company higher-ups," said Murphey. "I think that is a big part of it, especially as we've seen a disturbing trend in the past couple of months, as it appears not everyone in the energy sector is on board with the cutback areas."

[heironymouspasparagus]

Nothing will get fixed until Failin' or one of the Clown Show has a house that is damaged and their insurance company won't pay up....then it will be "problem solved".

[Weatherdemon]

Similar action with old abandoned oil wells in this state.  There is lots of propaganda being spewed by OERB about what a wonderful cleanup they are doing and testimonials from happy landowners who have had cleanups done.  I personally know 3 who aren't quite that happy.  They are on the waiting list - one for the last 9 years - and when ask about how long it's gonna be, the stock answer is that it could be 10 years.... So 10 - 9 might lead one to think that there may be only one year left to wait....  Wrong guess!!   Must be that Common Core Math, 'cause they are still told it will likely be 5 to 10 years!

And that is just for the surface stuff - old equipment etc.  Corporation Commission is supposed to be the lead for subsurface stuff, like remediation of old leaky pipelines and maybe casings, etc.  They say the OERB has to do their thing first before they can do their job.   

Just a good thing nothing is actually burning, huh?

Can anyone spell "runaround" ??

It's interesting reviewing facts and findings on different events.

I believe fracking has been ruled out for OK earthquakes. It's now injection wells.. which as soon as we get a light earthquake month it 'proves' they were right. If we don't have a light month, it proves we just need to shut down more injection wells.
IDK what role injection wells really play but know that you can't produce in OK with bring up a ton of salt water and most companies pay to store and haul off the water to be injected into the ground elsewhere vs paying to reinject it into the formation they pulled it from. I would think impact and costs could be reduced by doing that but again, I don't know the details of how that would work.


On well site clean up. The Corporation Commission is very open and up front about how long it will take to clean up a site. They told me on the first meeting it would be 5-10 years. When they did get it done about 6 years later, they did everything they said they would. There will be always be examples of unhappy people with anything but, I'm very happy with what they did on my land with two easy to find wells. They pulled pipe, well heads, power poles, railroad ties, associated lines, and plugged them. They actually took the time to search for two other wells that records indicated were there but we couldn't find them. They pulled a several miles of plastic pipe, filled in a cistern, hauled off a separator, and did some grading of the land.

Yes, it took a while but it was also within the time limits they gave and they did a thorough job.

[Conan71]

The salt water could be dealt with by evaporation rather than injection and they could use unwanted well-head or coal bed methane to fire the evaporators.  With oil trading at $33/bbl it seems like any disposal options are going to be disproportionately expensive to the oil being sold than it is when oil is $60+/bbl.  I'd like to know how much producers are charged per bbl for injection disposal. 

[heironymouspasparagus]

It's interesting reviewing facts and findings on different events.

I believe fracking has been ruled out for OK earthquakes. It's now injection wells.. which as soon as we get a light earthquake month it 'proves' they were right. If we don't have a light month, it proves we just need to shut down more injection wells.
IDK what role injection wells really play but know that you can't produce in OK with bring up a ton of salt water and most companies pay to store and haul off the water to be injected into the ground elsewhere vs paying to reinject it into the formation they pulled it from. I would think impact and costs could be reduced by doing that but again, I don't know the details of how that would work.


On well site clean up. The Corporation Commission is very open and up front about how long it will take to clean up a site. They told me on the first meeting it would be 5-10 years. When they did get it done about 6 years later, they did everything they said they would. There will be always be examples of unhappy people with anything but, I'm very happy with what they did on my land with two easy to find wells. They pulled pipe, well heads, power poles, railroad ties, associated lines, and plugged them. They actually took the time to search for two other wells that records indicated were there but we couldn't find them. They pulled a several miles of plastic pipe, filled in a cistern, hauled off a separator, and did some grading of the land.

Yes, it took a while but it was also within the time limits they gave and they did a thorough job.

My big complaint is with the OERB and their token efforts.  Corp Comm guy in my area is very helpful.  He made the previous operator seal up the injection well that is on one of these places (mine) quite some time ago.  Just waiting on OERB for that and the other two.....