Low pressure buildup with large disposal volumes of oil field water: A flow model of the Ellenburger Group, Fort Worth Basin, northcentral Texas

Pore Pressure Threshold and Fault Slip Potential for Induced Earthquakes in the Dallas‐Fort Worth Area of North Central Texas

“…Gao et al. (2021) show that the Ellenburger Group is thoroughly karstified, fractured and faulted creating strong heterogeneity and anisotropy in permeability and it is therefore not amenable to straightforward poroelastic parameterization beyond the near‐wellbore scale. In their study of the FWB, Zhai and Shirzaei (2018) show that changes in effective stress regionally are an order of magnitude larger than from poroelastic stress.…”

“…We use the history of ΔPp in the FWB due to SWD as derived from the hydrogeologic modeling by Gao et al. (2021) (ΔPp model), to compare to the earthquake history and the evolution of fault criticality and FSP. The ΔPp model employs comprehensive and integrated deterministic geologic inputs and thorough geostatistical modeling for populating reservoir fluid flow properties in 3D.…”

“…Gao et al. (2021) found that major faults in the ΔPp model, including those that became seismogenic, serve to preferentially and significantly diffuse pore pressure away from areas of SWD. The earthquakes occurred mainly in the basement rock along faults that cut directly from SWD injection intervals in the Ellenburger Group downward into basement.…”

“…It is well established that the increase in seismicity in the Fort Worth Basin (FWB) from 2008 through its peak in 2015, and continuing recently at far lower magnitudes and rates, was caused by deep disposal of oilfield wastewater (SWD) associated with development and production of the Barnett Shale (Figures 1 and 2) (Frohlich et al., 2016; Gao et al., 2021; Hennings et al., 2019; Hornbach et al., 2015, 2016; Magnani et al., 2017; Quinones et al., 2019; Scales et al., 2017). Discussion continues regarding the specific mechanisms that acted to induce multiple episodes of fault slip and earthquakes in the FWB, herein called earthquake sequences (ESs).…”

“…(2020), and the distribution of the maximum ΔPp at the basement‐sediment interface from the Gao et al. (2021) hydrogeologic model.…”