SUMMARIES

Summaries



Summaries

Oil and gas reservoirs are usually found in porous rocks, which also contain saltwater. This saltwater, which accompanies the oil and gas to the surface, can be disposed in two ways: 1) Returned by fluid injection into the reservoir where it originated for secondary or enhanced oil recovery; or 2) Injected into underground porous rock formations not productive of oil or gas, and sealed above and below by unbroken, impermeable strata. Saltwater disposal wells use this second method to manage saltwater.

Operators are responsible for disposing of produced water and frac fluid. Frac fluid is used to fracture and stimulate natural gas wells in certain areas of Texas, such as the Barnett Shale natural gas play near Fort Worth. Water or frac fluid is used to fracture tight shale to release gas trapped in the shale.

Operators are required to follow the Railroad Commission disposal regulations administered by the agency's Technical Permitting Section-Underground Injection Control Program. Underground Injection Control is a program that is federally delegated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to Texas, and it follows national guidelines under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act for surface and groundwater protection. EPA awarded the Railroad Commission “primary enforcement responsibility” over oil and gas injection and disposal wells on April 23, 1982.

Texas is the nation's number one oil and gas producer with more than 216,000 active oil and gas wells statewide. Injection and saltwater disposal wells are also located statewide to safely dispose of the produced water and frac fluid from these oil and gas wells. Texas has more than 50,000 permitted oil and gas injection and disposal wells.

Disposal wells inject fluid into an underground interval that is not productive of oil and gas. Injection wells reinject fluids into the same or similar reservoir, from which the fluids originated, for ...