American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2016 - 101

ConventionCoverage: Kansas Independent Oil & Gas Association
KCC, and Kansas Department of Health
and Environment. The KCC regulates
Class II injection wells and KDHE monitors Class I wells, he pointed out.
The task force, which he led, produced
a seismic action plan with two components,
Buchanan related. The first called for
Kansas to enhance its monitoring system
with the aim of detecting all events of
magnitude 1.5 or greater. Before this
earthquake swarm, Kansas had two operating stations. Based on conversations
with Oklahoma officials, the Kansas group
proposed expanding the state monitoring
network to more precisely determine the
epicenters of seismic events.
Buchanan said the second component
was developing the state's response. Key
to that was a seismic action score, "which
was a fairly complex score that took into
account the number of earthquakes in a
certain area, along with a number of
other factors."
"We calculate that score every time
we have an earthquake," he related. "It
gives us some sense of what to worry
about and what not to worry about."
With financial help from the KCC
and KGS, the U.S. Geological Survey
installed a number of seismic monitoring
stations across Harper and Sumner counties in April 2014, he said, with the aim
of improving depth detection.
"We didn't have a real good feel for
how deep the earthquakes were because
people were more interested in pinning
down the epicenters," Buchanan described.
"Before the stations were in place, people
estimated depths."
According to the KGS, an event of
magnitude 2.0 or greater triggers the seismic action plan. If the score's trigger
point is reached, he said the KCC and
KDHE had the authority to order additional
seismic monitoring for any disposal well
within six miles of the epicenter.
Results
From July 2015 to April 2016-after
Kansas had imposed its seismic response
plan-the state continued to see more
events than normal, but the bulk of them
were smaller than magnitude 2.5, Buchanan
told KIOGA. He cited USGS National
Earthquake Information Center data tracking seismic events since January 2013
that documented the upswing in November
2014 that led to the Kansas seismic action
plan and the falloff after the KCC implemented its plan in March 2015.
"We have not seen a 4.0 event in

Trey McFarren (red shirt, left of center) leads members of the Kansas Independent Oil &
Gas Association on a tour of the Haz-Mat Response Inc. facilities in Great Bend, Ks. McFarren is an emergency response project manager for Haz-Mat. The tour was part of
KIOGA's midyear meeting.

almost a year. We had one 3.0 in January,
but have not had one since. Even the
number of 2.0 events has gone down,"
Buchanan related. "We are seeing a dramatic reduction in large events. The KGS
data for the first three months of the year
show a reduction in small events, too."
Buchanan pointed out that induced
seismicity was a national concern. The
Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission
and the Ground Water Protection Council
have developed a primer for the regulatory
community listing responses devised by
several states.
A common response has been to limit

injections into basement rocks, Buchanan
mentioned. Oklahoma and Kansas have
ordered operators to cement back into
the overlying Arbuckle formation.
"Folks who study geomechanics say
the more efficacious part of those orders
is volume reduction, not cementing out
of the basement," Buchanan allowed.
"There also were conversations about
where in the Arbuckle they were injecting.
The take-home lesson is, don't inject
large volumes of water into highly porous
units right on top of the basement. I remember seeing that on a slide at one talk
and thinking, 'That is us.'"
❒

KIOGA Is Working Hard To Limit
Impacts Of Legislative Assaults
GREAT BEND, KS.-If there is one
silver lining to low oil and gas prices, it
is that legislative cross hairs have shifted
away from operators and toward other
revenue targets, Edward Cross, president
of the Kansas Independent Oil & Gas
Association assessed during the group's
midyear meeting, held April 20-22 in
several Great Bend locations.
Presenting a legislative and regulatory
roundup at the board and general membership meeting that closed the midyear's
business session, Cross allowed that while
not being the focus of government attention
had its advantages, he would prefer higher
commodity prices.

In his state legislative update, Cross
reported KIOGA's goal this year was to
minimize legislative assaults on the oil
and gas industry. The association tracked
19 issues with possible impacts on producers during the 2016 session, he said.
"One of the biggest challenges is the
state's budget," Cross reported. "State
revenues have been down all year. Reacting
to the shortfall, Governor Sam Brownback
in February ordered cuts to state universities of 3.0 percent-about $18 million.
In March, revenues were down again-by
$8 million-which was not nearly as much
as projected."
The Consensus Revenue Estimating
JUNE 2016 101

American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2016

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