Daisy Creager | The Journal Record

OKLAHOMA CITY – An ongoing saltwater purge in Blaine and Kingfisher counties and the relationship between horizontal and vertical drillers will be among the issues the Oklahoma Energy Producers Alliance will take up during the upcoming legislative session.

In a presentation to state legislators Thursday at the state Capitol, OEPA leaders discussed concerns they hope will be addressed. Kurt Bollenbach, managing director of Teocalli Exploration, a small independent oil and gas operator primarily located in northwest Oklahoma, discussed the ongoing saltwater purge occurring on the border of Kingfisher and Blaine counties.

Reported to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission July, the purge lead regulators to issue orders for the temporary restriction of disposal wells in the area. Bollenbach said the purge has been caused by producers disposing of the toxic water at too shallow of depths. Water with a salinity just shy of the Dead Sea’s is purging from cracks in the ground at a rate of 2 to 15 gallons per minute, enough to fill a swimming pool every day.

Water was previously disposed of at depths of 1.5 to 2 miles beneath the surface, but seismic activity led the industry to dispose at about three-fourths of a mile beneath the surface, he said.

“The seasoned producers I’ve had discussions with as well as those professionals who are truly concerned with resolving this problem, we’ve had a general consensus of two things. One, this is not naturally occurring, we’ve caused it. Two, the purge is a symptom of simply forcing too much water at too high a pressure in too shallow of zones. In other words, we’re just overdoing it,” Bollenbach said.

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The Williams well in Kingfisher County was fracked into in January 2019. Frack fluid came up our wellbore and overflowed the tanks.

This is what it looks like when a vertical well is fracked into from a horizontal frac job.

The well in this video is the Singer Oil Koetter 1-35. It’s located in 35- 17N-10W of Blaine County Oklahoma. Casing and tubing were shut in, and the pressure blew stuffing box rubbers out. Pride Energy was fracking their Red Land 1H & 2H wells from more than 600 feet away. The Corporation Commission was called to inspect the cleanup. They also filed a well impact form. This is fracing water coming out.

The well in this video was 660 feet away from the horizontal frac. The Corporation Commission has a rule that they have to stay 600 feet away, but they routinely wave that rule. Some horizontal frac jobs are within 50 feet of vertical wells.

This is not good for the environment. This is not good for small operators. This violation of property rights and harm to the environment is not good for Oklahoma.

When the long lateral bill was passed, Representative Weldon Watson said on the house floor that the damage in this video doesn’t happen. The big oil companies at that time said this doesn’t happen. It happens almost every day! In fact, we have access to data that shows 1,000 wells have been hit in Kingfisher Co. alone, and this well was in Blaine County.

Oklahoma started off as outlaw territory. Our state has had an unfortunate history of lawlessness, bribery, and “wild-west behavior“. Unfortunately, this is where we are in the regulatory arena. It is not the Corporation Commission‘s fault; at least not entirely. They don’t have enough resources to count all the wells, much less regulate them.
Big oil companies continue to have much more influence in Oklahoma than any other state. In other words, they get what they want. That is not good for the industry in the long run. The public eventually discovers the game and often times puts a drastic end to it. We need professional and honest regulation. That’s why we at the Oklahoma Energy Producers Alliance have filed a bill to allow the Corporation Commission to self-fund by assessing a small fee on oil and gas. This will allow them to hire the staff they need and free up 8million to go towards our Oklahoma budget problems.