Environmental groups fear groundwater contamination from underground crude oil storage. Regulators in the southern US state of Texas are relaxing rules about where companies can store oil underground, raising concern among environmentalists about potential groundwater contamination and other dangers. The members of the Railroad Commission of Texas voted Tuesday to allow companies to store oil underground in places other than salt caverns, which are considered better at preventing leaks than other geological formations. “All it does is allow operators to begin storing crude oil in all formations where it may make sense to do so.”The shift aimed to help oil producers whose wells are spewing far more crude than the world can use after the coronavirus pandemic gutted global demand for jet fuel and gasoline. Texas produces about 40 percent of the oil in the United States, and about 5 percent of the oil in the world.

Source: The Standard May 06, 2020 05:26 UTC