The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission voted Wednesday to close a well that's used to dispose of natural gas fluids and ban others from being drilled in a gas-rich area north of Conway where hundreds of earthquakes have struck.
Commissioners voted 6-0 to close a disposal well between Greenbrier and Enola that's operated by Deep-Six Water Disposal Services, a subsidiary of Oklahoma City-based Hurst Oil Investments Inc., the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.
The moratorium would not affect the drilling of natural gas wells, but it would change how fluids from the process are disposed.
Gas companies have tapped reserves of natural gas in the Fayetteville Shale in central Arkansas by injecting water and chemicals under high pressure to fracture the shale, a process known as fracking. Those fluids are injected into separate wells for disposal.
With a moratorium, companies would have to use trucks to get the fluids to injection wells elsewhere in Arkansas or in Oklahoma or Texas, Commission Deputy Director Shane Khoury said before Wednesday's vote.
The commission pinpointed four wells in central Arkansas that it said needed to be closed. Companies operating three of the wells agreed to close them voluntarily by Sept. 30. Deep-Six, which operates the fourth, says its disposal well doesn't cause any seismic activity, the Democrat-Gazette reported.
Source: NPR
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