Quake

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) said Friday a dozen small earthquakes in northeastern Ohio over the last year may have been triggered by a wastewater disposal well in Youngstown, and it unveiled a series of tough new regulations for injection wells.

A hearing at the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission (AOGC) to consider whether two saltwater injection wells in the Fayetteville Shale are related to seismic activity in the region has been postponed to April 26 from March 29 at the request of the injection well owners, Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Operating Inc. and Little Rock, AR-based Clarita Operating LLC. The wells are currently shut in and will remain so until at least the date of the hearing and maybe longer depending on what is decided at the AOGC. Both companies maintain that their wells are not related to a recent swarm of earthquakes in the area; however, since the wells were shut in, quake activity has declined somewhat (see Shale Daily, March 17).

As Japan struggled Monday to prevent a catastrophe at nuclear reactors crippled by the earthquake and tsunami that struck the country last week, both Russia and Qatar said they were willing and able to step in with supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to take up the slack for lost power generating capacity.