Hurricanes Raise Question About Stability of Cushing Tank Farm

Earthquakes and Cushing.  They’ve now caught the eye of one national news group that suggests the oil storage tank farms in the north central Oklahoma community are “vulnerable.”

Under the headline, “How Man-made Earthquakes Could Cripple the U.S. Economy,” Politico’s Kathryn Miles writes how the growing earthquakes in the state “changed the landscape of Oklahoma significantly.”

With the onset of Hurricane Harvey and the shutdown of refineries, the amount of oil at Cushing increased by a million barrels to nearly 60 million barrels.

While earthquakes and Cushing have been the target of concern in Oklahoma for the past three years, Politico is refocusing on them this week. Certainly, the quakes have been closely monitored and researched by both the Oklahoma Geological Survey and the U.S. Geological Survey, not to mention tens of thousands of Oklahoma residents whose homes and businesses have been shook and battered by the quakes.

Reporter Miles took it step further and interviewed operators of the five largest oil companies in Cushing.