The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma's insurance commissioner is asking insurance companies to send customers a notice to clarify whether their policies cover earthquake damage caused by things like mining or oil and gas exploration.

Commissioner John D. Doak said Tuesday insurers have 45 days to issue the notices to policyholders and insurance agents.

Doak says historically, earthquake insurance has excluded earth movement resulting from human activities such as mining, explosives and oil and gas exploration.

The Oklahoma Geological Survey has determined that the majority of the quakes in Oklahoma are more than likely the result of wastewater injection into disposal wells.

Doak says some companies have amended policy forms to cover damage from wastewater injection, while others have waived the man-made exclusion. He says a third group still excludes quakes induced by wastewater injection.

Messy. So how does the insurance company prove whether a quake was force majeure or man made?
if they can determine it is man made then does the policy holder sue the injection company when their claim is denied?

Or if you are the Tulsa World you force everyone out and try to have the building condemned.

So most of North Central Oklahoma will be forcibly abandoned and condemned.

That’s pretty much how it would go.

I’m guessing the burden of proof on you to prove it was man-made will be tougher than the burden of proof on the insurance companies.

If the policy excludes man made causes, then earthquake insurance in Oklahoma is useless.

The way it has gone in Guthrie is that an earthquake happens damage is done (usually masonry, occasionally foundation) and an insurance claim is filed. The insurance company determines that the quake was man made and denies the claim. An attorney is involved and a claim is made against a group of frackers (actually high pressure injection wells, but for the common nomenclature...). The frackers deny the claim and a lawsuit is filed.

The frackers claim:
1) You can't sue us in Court, you have to complain to the Corp Commission,
2) The Corp Commision doesn't have the power to act on complaints,
3) There is no link between fracking  and earthquakes,
4) If there is, there is no link between THIS earthquake and fracking,
5) If there is, you can't prove it was OUR well that caused the problem,
6) If you can, you can't prove what portion of the blame falls on us, other wells, or natural phenomenon,
 

They then paper the crap out of the Plaintiff's and the case gets dragged out, creating a situation where you have as much money in the legal fight as you have in damage to your home. Lawsuit is dropped.

Rinse. Repeat.

On the side, lobby state government to cover up the link (which they did for 5 years), pass laws granting immunity or preferential litigation rights to frackers, and generally try to screw people.  Also, lobby to remove county and local regulation of wells while also lobbying against centralized "big government."

Oklahoma made international news this summer when the Supreme Court held oil companies can be sued for earthquake damage:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/01/us/oklahoma-court-rules-homeowners-can-sue-oil-companies-over-quakes.html

to date, I'm not aware of any homeowner being paid by oil companies for earthquake damage.

(incidentally, this is the exact same pattern of behavior seen out east for destroyed wells. When wells started catching on fire and/or being tainted with drilling chemicals, the same argument were used)

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Seismologists and oil and gas industry regulators are scheduled to testify about a dramatic rise in the number of earthquakes in Oklahoma.

The Senate Energy Committee has scheduled a hearing on Friday to study the increase in seismic activity.

Among those scheduled to testify are Secretary of Energy and Environment Michael Teague and the Dr. Jeremy Boak with the Oklahoma Geological Survey. Officials with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission also are expected to speak.

Growing scientific evidence suggests the sharp rise in earthquakes in Oklahoma is linked to the injection of wastewater from oil and gas drilling deep into the earth.

In response, the Corporation Commission has developed a plan covering hundreds of disposal wells to examine if they are injecting too deep into the ground.

Al Jazeera America’s documentary on Oklahoma’s oil and gas industry-linked earthquake surge airs Dec. 13. The doc includes an unfettered interview with former state seismologist Austin Holland on his last day at the Oklahoma Geological Survey, during which he details industry pressure and conflicts of interest by state officials tasked with studying the shaking.

“Oklahoma Earthquakes: Bombshell Doc Reveals Big Oil’s Tight Grip on Politicians and Scientists”

https://stateimpact.npr.org/oklahoma/ (https://stateimpact.npr.org/oklahoma/)

Hey... we now have more measurable earthquakes than anywhere else in the world!!

We're #1 We're #1 We're #1

http://ecowatch.com/2015/11/16/oklahoma-most-earthquakes-fracking/

(side note: heard on the radio this morning that a new health survey puts us at #50)

We are also #1 in cuts to public education since 2008, almost 25%!

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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. 

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.