The Oklahoma Energy Producers Alliance is fighting a request by Devon Energy to create a new rule at the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. The rule would require vertical well operators to take responsibility for preventing pollution caused by horizontal fracking operations that damage nearby older wells.
The OEPA in a statement called it “no coincidence” that Devon asked for the rule while it also requested an emergency order to continue a controversial Blaine County frack job. The OEPA maintains Devon’s fracking operation twice damaged the Peck-1-28 operated by Rhino and caused it to blow out resulting in a major pollution event.
“Here is how it works,” said Richard Parrish, OEPA’s Oklahoma City Attorney and Regulatory Affairs director. “A horizontal well operator conducts a frack that the fracker knows will hit a vertical well in its path that may cause the vertical well to blow out, then the damaged party is responsible to prevent it? They clearly don’t want to take any regulatory responsibility for their own frack jobs causing pollution from other wells.”
The vertical well drilling operators maintain anytime a horizontal well is fracked in an old field with historical oil and gas production, there are likely to be problems.
“The older vertical wells have been constructed to function profitably, and are following the rules, in a prudent manner to prevent pollution. But horizontal drilling and fracking with pressures exceeding 5,000 psi through fields in which vertical wells are producing presents a likelihood of pollution to the surface and potentially to groundwater,” stated the OEPA in a release.
“Devon is a fine Oklahoma company that is important to our state,” said Mike Cantrell, OEPA president. “The Oklahoma Energy Producers Alliance is made up of small business oil and gas producers all across our state. We want to live in harmony with others in our industry, but we are here for the long run. We must live in harmony with our fellow Oklahomans by making sure our activities are conducted while protecting the property of others and Oklahoma’s greatest resource, our water.”
His organization suggests that if horizontal drillers want to protect the environment and avoid pollution problems involving damaged vertical wells, companies should buy the older wells first and take their own precautions.