Earthquake in top Texas oil region spurs calls for new fracking rules

A powerful earthquake in West Texas is drawing fresh scrutiny to frackers’ water-management operations in the nation’s hottest petroleum-producing region. A 5.4-magnitude earthquake, the fourth largest in Texas history, struck an oil-and-gas production hot spot in Reeves County on Wednesday afternoon, sending tremors that were felt as far as Dallas, El Paso and San Antonio, where it damaged a historical building. No injuries were reported. The temblor adds pressure to the state’s oil-and-gas regulators to impose stricter rules on frackers pumping wastewater underground to stymie the Permian basin’s dangerous new seismic activity, analysts and executives said. It could also prompt a review of management practices and affect oil operations, they said.

The quake was one of thousands to shake the oil-rich Permian basin of West Texas and New Mexico in recent years. Scientists have linked the increase in seismic activity to shale companies pumping billions of gallons of wastewater—a byproduct of oil-and-gas production—down shallow and deep disposal wells. Injections modify the pressure underground and can cause faults to slip and create earthquakes. The temblor was unlikely to have an immediate impact on oil-and-gas production in the area, according to analysts. But some executives said it should be a wake-up call for regulators and companies to figure out how to deal with the vast volumes of water that surface daily in the oil patch. Kirk Edwards, an oil executive and former chairman of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, said he felt this week’s earthquake at his office in Midland, Texas, about a three-hour drive away from the site of the temblor. “We cannot keep cramming a tremendous amount of water through a disposal well at one site,” Mr. Edwards said.