More Industry Linked Earthquakes Recorded in Alberta
New seismic reporting system ‘a good start’ but ‘not foolproof,’ says hazard expert.
More industry-linked earthquakes have shaken up Alberta’s oil and gas fields in recent weeks from Fox Creek to Peace River, say experts and regulators.
In Fox Creek, Alberta, where industry triggered a 4.4 magnitude earthquake, a company fracking in the Duvernay Formation has reported more tremors.
“On May 28, an operator in the Fox Creek area reported two seismic events, of a magnitude 2.2 and 2.1 respectively,” confirmed Ryan Bartlett, a spokesperson for the Alberta Energy Regulator.
“The events were associated with hydraulic fracturing operations,” said Bartlett, “and were reported to the [regulator] as required by Subsurface Order #2,” a new set of regulations to monitor seismicity set up last February.
In addition, a shallow 3.5 magnitude earthquake occurred near Rocky Mountain House in central Alberta where a history of quick and high-volume gas extraction from the Strachan gas pool has triggered swarms of tremors since 1976.
Gail Atkinson, one of Canada’s foremost experts on earthquake hazards, said the June 2 event near Rocky Mountain House “appears likely to have been triggered by hydraulic fracture operations nearby, though the details of those operations are not yet available.”
The fracking of tight oil formations along the Rocky Mountains, says a recent industry case study, can divert fracking fluids into faults with the risk of “generating induced seismicity of large enough magnitude to be felt at the surface.”
Just northeast of the town of Peace River, residents recently heard a loud boom as two earthquakes shook an area where industry extracts bitumen by injecting steam into the ground. The regulator’s Alberta Geological Survey branch is investigating the events.
“We can’t take things out of the earth and expect things not to move,” said nearby resident and rancher Carmen Langer.
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