Regulators on 7 April told some injection well operators close to the epicenter of a magnitude 4.0 earthquake near Carney on 6 April that they will have to shut down their operations down indefinitely.
Officials with Oklahoma's Corporation Commission said the agency's Oil and Gas Conservation Division also issued a directive to owners of other nearby disposal wells to limit the amounts of waste water they inject into the Arbuckle formation moving forward.
Commission officials, however, said the directed reductions and shutins will be put into place gradually during the next month.
The gradual changes are intended to prevent suddenly changing subsurface pressures, based on worries those could increase the risk of another strong earthquake.
Injection well operators within 6 miles of the earthquake's epicenter are being told they will have to shut down their wells entirely for the foreseeable future.
For owners of wells between 6 and 10 miles from where the earthquake happened, those injecting an average of 500 B/D or less over the past 30 days will be allowed to continue operating, provided they don't exceed that daily volume.
Owners of wells injecting more than 500 B/D over the past 30 days will have to reduce flows by 50%.