Examiners: Company Not To Blame For North Texas Quakes

he Texas Railroad Commission appears poised to clear a second oilfield company of responsibility for a series of earthquakes that rattled two North Texas towns — despite research suggesting otherwise.

In a preliminary report issued Thursday, two agency hearing examiners concluded that evidence “does not support” a finding that a wastewater disposal well drilled by Houston-based EnerVest contributed to the burst of seismic activity that riled up residents in Reno and Azle from late 2013 through early 2014.

It follows a nearly identical report absolving another disposal well operator, ExxonMobil subsidiary XTO Energy, of ties to the quakes.

More than two-dozen mini earthquakes during that period shook towns atop the gas-rich Barnett Shale, and put pressure on regulators to address concerns that oil and gas activities — namely disposal wells, deep resting places for liquid oil and gas waste —triggered those and other temblors across the state.

Read more: http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/10/examiners-company-not-blame-north-texas-quakes/