Hi Everyone,
It's my first post here. I am looking at buying farmland. In Oklahoma most of the land is separated from its mineral rights. I found some land with a well on it. I expect the land would suit my purpose but I am concerned with what can happen to it if the oil company decided to do fracking on it. Right now it appears there is an oil well pump on the land.
I am not even sure they use existing oil wells as fracking wells. Is that true or a possibility?
Fracking does not cause earthquakes, global warming or cause ground water to be contaminated. In Texas the Texas Railroad Commission regulates drilling. Drillers have to "set surface casing" down below the ground water aquifers to protect it from contamination. The people of Denton County Texas tried to "ban fracking". The Texas State Legislature over-ruled them this spring and it is currently legal in Texas. Local govt. don't have any say so about it! As it should be. Basically people that don't have any mineral rights or interest think you should not because they don't have any! I don't believe in "share the wealth"! Do you?
I have a couple of reservations about fracking. One the ingredients are a trade secret so nobody knows what is getting pumped into the ground. I am also not sure it doesn't cause earthquakes. Your basically fracturing the ground to release gases. Once the water drains away your left with a gap that is bound to settle at some point. Does anyone know if oil companies frack old oil wells? If they don't do that I would be more inclined to purchase.
Take a look in the Internet for some video's on how fracking is done. I think the home page for Mineral Rights Forum has one at this time. Chesapeake used to have the process on their website a few year's ago.
Christian, if you don’t own the mineral rights, there is nothing you can do to prevent fracking short of a humongously expensive lawsuit, which you would likely lose. And yes, they use existing wells for fracking. Sorry to give you bad news, but I would advise you to look for another property.
Mr. McMahon:
Let me say up front, that I am from Texas and there are some differences between Texas and Oklahoma; but, In My Opinion, Fracking would be the least of your worries since fracking is done down deep under the surface and has been proven time and time again to be a perfectly safe process. No proof of earthquakes, and all the other bad things the liberal crowd wants to tag it with. No solid proof that it has contaminated the fresh water strata's either since these guys are getting very good at using surface casing and high quality casing and cement to protect our water. Personally, I am only a landowner myself and no real expert here; but, I would suggest that your fracking fears should be the least of your worries since you would be the owner of the surface.
There are lots of bad things that can happen to cause real problems for the surface owner if they have no control over what takes place. Roads, Seismic Testing, Pipelines, electrical power lines, ditches and surface pits, as well as well pads and the associated traffic to and from the well and the potential for lots of people you don't want on your land. It would be quite possible to have a very high noise well pump right at your back door and there are lots of other negatives that should be considered before making this purchase. It is also, quite possible that they will be able to drill water wells if not prohibited from doing so in the lease agreement. So, with all this said, make sure you get a copy of the oil/gas lease agreement and have a very thorough attorney go through that with a fine tooth comb to see what if any protection you might have.
Good Luck and welcome to the forum.
That is a concern I didn't think of. I will continue to look for land that I can get the mineral rights to. I plan to retire on the land as well as farm it so I don't want a nightmare on my doorstep.
good luck finding land for sale including mineral rights.... in an active oil field ..may be hard to come by.
visit the site and see where the well is located.
If the well on your land was drilled in the last 50 years or so, odds are it has been fracture treated at least once, and possibly multiple times. Depending on exactly where you are "odds are" may well mean over a 90% chance.
If you have lived in Oklahoma, particularly if you have lived near oil and gas production, you have, in all likelihood lived near fracture treated wells.
Before "fracking" became a bogeyman used by anti-fossil fuel extremists to scare people about the awful things oil & gas development cause, things like providing light and heat and transportation fuels for society, Fracture treatments, which in the day to day shorthand of the oil field is known as "fracing" was one of the completion steps need to turn a drilled hole into productive oil wells.
After the witch hunt started, "fracking" (thank you so much, Battle star Galactica) has come been alleged to be the cause of everything from earthquakes, to drought, to freshwater contamination, to such health issues as cardiovascular disease and STD. The allegations seem to all stop just a little short of establishing causation; in other words people say it "may" cause this and that, but are smart enough not to get where they must prove their claim.
There is not one documented case where fracture treatment has caused contamination of groundwater (although the have been surface spills that might have done so). There is not one case where "fracking" has cause a significant earthquake (although improper injection of brine into SWD well may do so). Sometimes in dry conditions, the use of so much water may impact the ability to graze, but (1) there will be a surface use agreement and/or damage payment to compensate the rancher and (2) in extreme cases the State Water Resources Board may restrict the use of groundwater.
If you don't want oil and gas activity on your land be sure to buy the mineral rights AND have enough land that you cannot be "force pooled". Otherwise it would make sense to learn how to live and work in harmony with the oil & gas producer.
Well said, Charles Hurlburt.
Thanks for the input guys and gals,
The auction ended at 175,000 for the 80 acres. I didn't bid but I would have at a 1/10 the price. I am still confused about the debate that fracking doesn't cause earthquakes when Oklahoma is experiencing major earthquake storms and fracking has taken off about the same time.
Personally I am going to find land with mineral rights to prevent any kind of issues.
As far as earthquakes go, you are confusing correlation with causation. Just because reported 3.0 earthquakes went up at about the same time as "fracking" made the news doesn't mean that one was the cause of the other. Other changes that occurred in this same time period include changing from analog to digital TV signals and introducing ultra-low sulfur diesel for motor fuels; why aren't they to blame?
Actually in Oklahoma fracture treatments have been standard completion practices since just after WWII.
There ARE some activities associated with oil & gas production that can possibly induce seismicity (earthquakes). The primary process is deep well injection of oilfield produced brine. If it is done in the wrong place at the wrong depth and at the wrong time, it is POSSIBLE that this inject may induce earthquakes. The OCC has developed a special permitting process to (a) identify which SWD/SWI wells may be at risk to do this and (b) establish a gradual increase in flow rater and injection pressure to minimize any seismicity.
But this actually obscures the problem. Deep well injection to dispose of oilfield brine or to enhance petroleum recovery is actually an older technique than fracture treating, so why wasn't this a problem in 1990 but it is a problem now?
Good luck with your search find land; I hope you get what you want.