Earthquake in Oklahoma threatens world’s largest oil storage terminal

A magnitude 5.0 earthquake that struck two kilometres west of Cushing, Oklahoma, on Sunday November 6.could pose a threat to the one of the world’s largest oil storage terminals.

Located 50 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, Cushing has a population of 7,900 and is proclaimed to be the ‘world’s largest oil storage terminal’, with its tank farms holding around 58.5 million barrels of crude oil.

Cushing experienced 19 earthquakes in the past week, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

A 16-block area in downtown has been cordoned off due to the danger posted by unstable façades and broken glass, according to catastrophe modelling firm AIR Worldwide.

Debris has been reported outside commercial buildings, and there are reports of shattered windows and downed parapet walls and brick façades, said AIR.

Some 618 temblors of M2.8 or greater have struck Oklahoma in the first half of 2016.

Many believe the increase in earthquakes in the Midwest to be induced seismicity due to wastewater disposal related to oil and gas production, according to AIR.

AIR said that it is not clear if the occurrences or smaller and intermediate-size earthquakes and the stress changes from wastewater disposal could trigger larger and more damaging earthquakes.

On September 3, a M5.8 earthquake struck Pawnee in Oklahoma, which led the Oklahoma Corporation Commission to order four Arbuckle disposal wells to be shut in, and ten to reduce their volume by 25 percent. In Osage County 32 wells will have reduce volume.