OCC Well and Seismic Monitoring

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) Oil and Gas Division is charged with overseeing Oklahoma’s oil and gas industry. From 2009 to 2014 the intensity and frequency of earthquakes in Oklahoma increased dramatically and a growing body of research indicated a link with injection wells and, to a lesser extent, hydraulic fracturing. In September 2014 rules went into effect requiring more frequent reporting of injection volumes in certain Areas of Interest and requiring disposal wells permitted for 20,000 barrels / day to conduct Mechanical Integrity Tests. 

Coordinate Solutions has a long history with the OCC Oil and Gas Division as the main contractors involved in installing the Ground Water Protection Council's (GWPC) Risk Based Data Management System (RBDMS) and Data Mining system in Oklahoma. In early 2016 Coordinate Solutions was awarded a contract to develop an application to allow OCC's induced seismicity team to rapidly assess interactions between injection volumes and rates and earthquakes. The result of this contract was the OCC Well and Seismic Monitoring (OWSM) application. 

The OWSM application allows OCC staff to locate earthquake and injection history based on specific search criteria.

Staff then have the ability to visualize the spatial correlations between the earthquakes and injection wells as well as to analyze relationships between well injection volumes and earthquake magnitude and frequency. 

Details of each individual well are easily accessible. 

Find out what the state of Oklahoma is doing about earthquakes here. Learn more about injection wells here. View the Potential for induced seismicity within Oklahoma presentation by Austin Holland of the Oklahoma Geologic Survey, University of Oklahoma here.

If you'd like to learn more about the OWSM application please contact us. We'd love to hear from you.

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CONTACT

Charles Lord

Oklahoma Corporation Commission, Oil and Gas Division

PARTNERS: GWPC