Who is really to blame

[StillwaterTownie]

In my opinion we are at the point where the only short term solution is demand destruction. We can talk about gas tax holidays and gas cards and even releasing strategic reserves but that does nothing to solve the problems and IMO will make things worse.

Taking demand out of this economy is going to be painful, but you can’t snap your fingers and increase rig counts, Human Resources or add downstream capacity. It is not a simple process to get a well approved, drilled, completed and connected and producing. Think about the people, infrastructure and money it takes to find, produce and turn a dth/bbl into a KW or gallon of gas and then for you to consume it and then compare that to what it takes to do the same for a bottle of Aquafina water. Then do a cost analysis. It’s a freakin miracle we produce and consume energy for what we do. It’s what in part has made and sustained us as the global super power. We better figure it out as China and others are and will.

Long term it’s going to take negotiation and compromise on both sides. I’ve said it before and I will keep saying it, my belief is that the long term solution is a balanced approach to energy sources.

We’ve currently got leaders in one party foolishly saying they will end fossil fuel production and leaders in the other foolishly trying to convince others that renewables are evil.

I have long been a believer that Oklahoma is perfectly situated from a resource standpoint, it’s geographic location, it’s infrastructure and it’s people to be a domestic and global leader in both responsible oil and gas production and renewable/alternative energy. I am very glad that one of Gov Stitt’s objectives is to promote the oil and gas industry while at the same time seek out companies that invest in alternatives. It’s a win/win. Right now Oklahoma has a chance to really position itself and truly change our stars. This doesn’t happen very often.

But it seems to be there isn't a rise in oil production in Oklahoma because the preponderance of earthquakes in Oklahoma is at near zero. Or does it mean that oil companies are smartly avoiding the fault zones?

 

[andylicious]

But it seems to be there isn't a rise in oil production in Oklahoma because the preponderance of earthquakes in Oklahoma is at near zero. Or does it mean that oil companies are smartly avoiding the fault zones?

EIA is showing a very real production decline

 

[HacklemanPoke]

But it seems to be there isn't a rise in oil production in Oklahoma because the preponderance of earthquakes in Oklahoma is at near zero. Or does it mean that oil companies are smartly avoiding the fault zones?

It’s my belief after discussion w my friends who are geologists that the actual drilling and production of hydrocarbons had no direct causation to the earthquakes. Indirectly it was the injection of waste water both where and how much. I think, and others are certainly more knowledgeable that it was both producing formation salt water and recovered flow back of frac water that was injected into SWD wells that caused the earthquakes. It sure seems like once this was studied and corrections were taken the earthquakes all but stopped. There are also published studies that explain this in detail.

So I guess you could argue that increased drilling, completion and producing did lead to earthquakes but once we understood what was happening we were able to mitigate. This is part of the responsible operations that I believe the industry takes.