"Oil and gas producers have made a devil’s bargain with Texas’ geography. They print money by extracting oil and gas from this desolate and yet bountiful region — the Permian generated roughly $182 billion in gross domestic product this year alone. In turn, they drastically alter our underground geology, leading to earthquakes, sinkholes and even permanent saltwater lakes created from briny, contaminated water. Meanwhile, the Texas Railroad Commission, the state agency tasked with oversight of the oil and gas industry, mostly neglects its responsibilities. Will they step up this time?"

"Temblors in Texas have risen sharply over the past decade, and research has linked the increased seismic activity to fracking. After oil and gas are pumped from production wells, they're separated from the groundwater that comes up with them. That water is toxic, and often radioactive, so it's typically injected back into the porous rock formations. That creates fluid pressure on ancient fault lines. Eventually that pressure builds to the point that the fault lines slip, causing earthquakes."

Since our last newsletter a week ago highlighted several seismic events, you can see more reported occurrences on the USGS website. On Thanksgiving, there was a M 4.2. At this link we screened the activity in the state line area over the past 7 days, on >2.5 M criteria, finding 8 events documented by USGS over the past week.

Oil prices were largely flat on Wednesday as investors turned their attention to an OPEC+ meeting to decide on output policy, while supply disruption caused by a storm in the Black Sea and lower U.S. inventories drove buying.

Profits for drillers in the M-U (and other shale plays) recovered and began to climb again in the third quarter of 2023 following a five-quarter slide.