Regulators consider moratorium on disposal wells

Editor’s note: Roby Brock, with our content partner Talk Business, wrote this report. He can be reached at [email protected]

The director of the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission will ask his board to consider a "permanent moratorium" on disposal wells in an 1,150 square mile region in the Fayetteville Shale play.

A temporary moratorium on the disposal wells has been in place since January 26, 2011, when a number of inquiries were made to determine if there was a correlation between the wells and earthquakes in the region.

In an announcement made public today (June 21), agency director Lawrence Bengal said that an initial investigation conducted by the Arkansas Geological Survey and the Center for Earthquake Research and Information "has reached a point to support the recommendation of a regulatory response."

Bengal said that he will ask commissioners to consider a permanent moratorium area at the oil and gas commission’s meeting in July. He emphasized that there was still "no evidence or indication that the seismic activity is related to the drilling or completion (including fracture stimulation) of Fayetteville Shale production wells in the Guy-Greenbrier, Arkansas area."

The permanent moratorium will includ e any new disposal wells within a 1,150-square-mile region in north central Arkansas and it will include a requirement that all existing disposal wells currently located or proposed to be located within the moratorium area "be plugged and the sites restored."

"In the remaining Fayetteville Shale Development Area outside the Permanent Moratorium Area, the Director will propose additional requirements for any new disposal wells," Bengal’s letter to the board said. "These requirements may include the submission of detailed seismic data to identify fault zones, the creation of setbacks from fault zones, the establishment of spacing between disposal wells, and the requirement to install seismic instruments in close proximity to each new or existing disposal well in the Fayetteville Shale Development Area."

Bengal also disclosed that he had shared his intent with Gov. Mike Beebe and said the Governor is "in agreement with the proposed regulatory response.”

Several calls to natural gas company representatives in the region were not immediately returned.