Earthquake Insurance - should those using injection wells pay?

[heironymouspasparagus]

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. 

There is a LOT of water to be rid of....the oil cut probably averages under 10% in Oklahoma.  Haven't heard any numbers about disposal in last 7 or 8 years, but used to be cheap.  'Course that is in part due to the ease of putting a leaky tank truck or truck with barrels on the road and just drive around until the problem is solved...


Am not very familiar with the deep high pressure wells that are causing our earthquakes, but I bet that costs more.

[Weatherdemon]

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. 

Some wells around here produce more salt water than oil which is the problem with production in OK.
To utilize the methane, you need a compressor which requires more power than the methane coming out can provide so I don't think an evaporator is realistic. I don't like that they vent the gas but you lose money trying to recover for use on site in most instances. Same with selling it. There is not an ROI for running pipe and powering compressor to sell it in most cases. Some leases do recover and sell the natural gas if there is any profit to be made though.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Some wells around here produce more salt water than oil which is the problem with production in OK.
To utilize the methane, you need a compressor which requires more power than the methane coming out can provide so I don't think an evaporator is realistic. I don't like that they vent the gas but you lose money trying to recover for use on site in most instances. Same with selling it. There is not an ROI for running pipe and powering compressor to sell it in most cases. Some leases do recover and sell the natural gas if there is any profit to be made though.

They all do.  I don't think there is a well in this state that even reaches 25%.  None of the producers I have ever talked to got better than 20% or so and I think they were 'hedging'...

Looking around, the 20%'ers were the lucky ones!

http://newsok.com/article/5441778