When Oklahoma experienced months of earthquakes some years ago, state regulators had wastewater well operators to curtail or reduce their operations. Now Texas regulators are doing the same thing and recently targeted one specific company following earthquakes in the Permian Basin.
The Texas Railroad Commission took steps last week against Blackbuck Resources, a company described in news reports as “defiant” over its operations of injection of oil field wastewater deep underground. It was similar in Oklahoma where wastewater was injected to a depth that seismologists and other experts suspected was causing the earthquakes.
In the Texas case, regulators believed over the past year that the Blackbuck Resources injections were linked to the earthquakes including a strong quake recorded last month. But in the recent Railroad Commission order, regulators voted to close Blackbuk’s disposal well permanently.
Whether the company will appeal the decision in court is unknown.