Man-made earthquakesOklahoma Corporation Commission shuts down oil wells to reduce threat to Cushing oil hub

By Robert Lee Maril

Published 12 November 2015

Cushing, Oklahoma, is the site of an immense oil tank farm, which presently stores fifty-four million barrels awaiting transfer to coastal refineries and plants. The tank farm is considered an integral and vital part of our national energy infrastructure. According to scientists, the integrity of the Cushing hub is now at risk because of fracking. Studies document that the recent disposal of millions of barrels of water into disposal wells, including those adjacent to the Cushing hub, have caused the rapid rise of earthquakes in Oklahoma. Oklahoma earthquakes have thus become a very real national security issue. Until federal expertise and support reaches Oklahoma, a potential human-made catastrophe could conceivably also become a national security disaster.

Professor Robert Lee Maril // Source: ecu.edu

Last Thursday night Matt Skinner, Oklahoma Corporation Commission information officer, felt yet another earthquake shake his house in Guthrie. Although the exact measurement of this minor quake has not yet been reported, it was enough to jolt Skinner awake. It is not the first quake that has left him sleepless in Oklahoma. Unprompted, he tunnels into piles of documents on his desk to uncover a photo of a thick, ugly crack running through his ten inch concrete driveway. Skinner says previous earthquakes also have caused damage to the walls and foundation of his home.

But Matt Skinner’s problems with his house in Guthrie, problems he directly attributes to frequent and intensifying earthquakes, are not his alone. Guthrie, Oklahoma, a short ride north on I-35 from Oklahoma City, also lies just a few miles from Cushing. Cushing, a small, unassuming community of less than 10,000, is the major midwestern hub feeding the huge petro-chemical industry lining the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.

Cushing’s immense tank farms, which presently store fifty-four million barrels awaiting transfer to coastal refineries and plants, are considered an integral and vital part of our national energy infrastructure

According to scientists, the integrity of the Cushing hub is now at risk. Studies document that the recent disposal of millions of barrels of water into disposal wells, including those adjacent to the Cushing hub, have caused the rapid rise of earthquakes in Oklahoma. While the majority of these quakes are minor, last year alone Oklahoma had 585 quakes ranking it second only in seismic activity to Alaska (see D. E. McNamara et al., “Reactivated faulting near Cushing, Oklahoma: Increased potential for a triggered earthquake in an area of United States strategic infrastructure,” Geophysical Research Letters 42 [23 October 2015]: 8328–32).

The responsibility for responding to this unusual state of affairs falls to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which is mandated by law to regulate the oil and gas industries. (). But in unprecedented times such as these, what, if anything, could and should the OCC be doing?