Seismicity Induced by Simultaneous Abrupt Changes of Injection Rate and Well Pressure in Hutubi Gas Field

Lanlan, Tang; Zhou, Lu; Zhang, Miao; Sun, Li; Wen, Lianxing

doi:10.1029/2018jb015863

Cited by 31 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…These two approaches independently suggest that the anomalous seismicity is associated with gas injection. The spatiotemporal correlation between seismicity and injection wells suggests a causal connection (Tang et al, ; Yang et al, ). Our results indicate that ETAS modeling correctly identify induced earthquake occurrences during the earlier two cycles in 2013 and 2014.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Two factors might contribute to this discrepancy. Tang et al's () applied velocity model oversimplified the velocity structure above 20 km, limiting earthquake depth resolution and relocation accuracy. Their stations were also insufficiently close to the injection sites, the potential source region.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given a reliable location, P waves are expected to arrive later than the origin time and later with increasing source‐station distance. Therefore, location errors of the initial catalog and Tang et al () can be implied from Figures a–b. (c) The waveform profile of the same earthquake by assigning our relocation (see section ).…”

Section: Tectonic Setting Ugs Operations and Datamentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Relocated earthquakes near the Hutubi UGS. (a) The red filled circles and red stars represent two groups of common earthquakes studied by us and by Tang et al (), respectively. Each group is enclosed by the red line, and their occurrence month and the year is labeled as text.…”

Section: Earthquake Relocationsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…(a) The waveform profile of the earthquake by assigning the initial catalog location. (b) The waveform profile of the earthquake by assigning the relocation by Tang et al (). The blue dotted line marks the origin time.…”

Section: Tectonic Setting Ugs Operations and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Seismological Investigations of Induced Earthquakes Near the Hutubi Underground Gas Storage Facility

et al. 2019

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The Hutubi underground gas storage facility in Xinjiang, China, with a maximum gas storage capacity of 10.7 billion m3, provides a good opportunity to study seismicity potentially induced by the annually cyclic injection and extraction of natural gas. To statistically distinguish induced seismicity from the tectonic background, we investigate the background seismicity probability of each event using the space‐time epidemic‐type aftershock sequence model and a stochastic declustering method. Our statistical results suggest a potential link between gas injection and two groups of seismicity, with very low background seismicity probabilities during the first and second injection periods in August 2013 and May 2014, respectively. To better understand the earthquake physics, we relocate earthquakes by incorporating a dedicated mobile seismic network after refining the regional 1D velocity model by utilizing an artificial source. After double‐difference relocations, those two groups of earthquakes move much closer to the faults bounding the rock storage units and are situated at a depth around 4 km, slightly deeper than the reservoir formation. Focal mechanism solutions of the two largest earthquakes (Mw 2.8 and 3.0) in August 2013 show a possibly unmapped reverse fault gently dipping to the south. Based on our high‐resolution earthquake locations, we propose that these on‐fault earthquakes are not hydrologically connected with the reservoir formation but are likely induced by poroelastic stress perturbations due to gas injection. Poroelastic stressing can have a larger impact on seismicity rate than pore pressure diffusion at large distances; hence, the distributions and sizes of preexisting faults might play a key role in seismic hazard assessments in our study region.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Tectonic Setting Ugs Operations and Datamentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Earthquake Relocationsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Tectonic Setting Ugs Operations and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Seismological Investigations of Induced Earthquakes Near the Hutubi Underground Gas Storage Facility

et al. 2019

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Earthquake hazard and risk analysis for natural and induced seismicity: towards objective assessments in the face of uncertainty

Bommer

2022

Bull Earthquake Eng

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The fundamental objective of earthquake engineering is to protect lives and livelihoods through the reduction of seismic risk. Directly or indirectly, this generally requires quantification of the risk, for which quantification of the seismic hazard is required as a basic input. Over the last several decades, the practice of seismic hazard analysis has evolved enormously, firstly with the introduction of a rational framework for handling the apparent randomness in earthquake processes, which also enabled risk assessments to consider both the severity and likelihood of earthquake effects. The next major evolutionary step was the identification of epistemic uncertainties related to incomplete knowledge, and the formulation of frameworks for both their quantification and their incorporation into hazard assessments. Despite these advances in the practice of seismic hazard analysis, it is not uncommon for the acceptance of seismic hazard estimates to be hindered by invalid comparisons, resistance to new information that challenges prevailing views, and attachment to previous estimates of the hazard. The challenge of achieving impartial acceptance of seismic hazard and risk estimates becomes even more acute in the case of earthquakes attributed to human activities. A more rational evaluation of seismic hazard and risk due to induced earthquakes may be facilitated by adopting, with appropriate adaptations, the advances in risk quantification and risk mitigation developed for natural seismicity. While such practices may provide an impartial starting point for decision making regarding risk mitigation measures, the most promising avenue to achieve broad societal acceptance of the risks associated with induced earthquakes is through effective regulation, which needs to be transparent, independent, and informed by risk considerations based on both sound seismological science and reliable earthquake engineering.

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The temporal evolution of induced seismicity sequences generated by low-pressure, long-term fluid injection

2023

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Traffic light schemes (TLSs) are commonly used to mitigate induced seismicity caused by subsurface fluid injection. Verdon and Bommer (J Seismol 25:301–326, 2021a) investigated the validity of the implicit assumptions that underpin the successful functioning of TLSs. In particular, they examined the extent to which magnitude jumps (sudden increases in event magnitudes from any preceding seismicity) and trailing events (continued increases in seismicity levels after the end of injection) took place in hydraulic fracturing (HF) induced seismicity sequences. Other technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS), wastewater disposal (WWD) and natural gas storage (NGS) involve the gradual but long-term injection of large fluid volumes at low pressure. Hence, we might expect to see a different spatial and temporal evolution of magnitudes for seismicity induced by low-pressure, long-term (LPLT) injections compared to HF. In this study, we compile cases of LPLT injection-induced seismicity in order to examine their temporal evolution. We examine the occurrence of magnitude jumps, trailing events and onset times for seismicity after the initiation of injection. We find that few LPLT injections have produced trailing events, and that magnitude jumps are typically below 1.5 magnitude units. The timescale of event occurrence (relative to the onset of injection) is highly variable, likely reflecting site-specific conditions. For long-term injection, we observe a trend for the largest events to occur within the earlier part of each sequence, with magnitudes then stabilising, or even reducing, as injection continues. Finally, we evaluate the performance of the next record breaking event (NRBE) model as a method for forecasting induced event magnitudes, finding that this method performs reasonably well in most cases, but that in some cases the largest event significantly exceeds this model.

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Seismicity Induced by Simultaneous Abrupt Changes of Injection Rate and Well Pressure in Hutubi Gas Field

Cited by 31 publications

References 55 publications

Seismological Investigations of Induced Earthquakes Near the Hutubi Underground Gas Storage Facility

Seismological Investigations of Induced Earthquakes Near the Hutubi Underground Gas Storage Facility

Earthquake hazard and risk analysis for natural and induced seismicity: towards objective assessments in the face of uncertainty

The temporal evolution of induced seismicity sequences generated by low-pressure, long-term fluid injection

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