Abstract: Injection-Induced Seismicity: End of the Beginning?

For the last several years, there have been numerous technical workshops on injection-induced seismicity which, looking back, serve as snapshots documenting the rapid evolution in our understanding of this important topic. With time, the tone of these workshops has changed in step with advancement by industry, regulators and academics managing this critical issue. Early discussions focused on education and awareness of the causes and cases of induced seismicity.  This was followed by reactive implementation of regulated traffic light systems, and now development of more proactive operational strategies to mitigate induced seismicity. Within a cooperative environment including various stakeholders, industry best practices have emerged. Now mitigation success stories can potentially be seen, most notably in both Western Canada and in the state of Oklahoma, where seismicity rates appear to have declined over the past few years. Improvements coincide with both operations slowing down during the financial downturn and impacts of operational improvements and regulations. Such improvements led to Professor Mark Zoback (Stanford) to recently proclaim “the end of the beginning”, recounting Sir Winston Churchill’s famous quote at the turning point in WWII towards allied victory.

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