Detailed API study defines injection-well failure risks

A recent study for the American Petroleum Institute shows that the risk of water from oil and gas industry injection wells reaching an underground source of drinking water (USDW) is small in the U.S. These findings provide additional data to support the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) recent report to Congress that concludes that the underground injection of produced water should not be regulated as a hazardous waste. Data and methodology developed by the study identify where operators should consider additional corrosion-protection measures and where more intensive surveillance of injection-well operating parameters should be evaluated.