CHICKASHA – The Chickasha City Council voted to sell water from the municipal lake to a major oil and gas production company, and approved the sale of oil and gas mining leases on a dozen tracts of cityowned land.
• Oilman Harold Hamm’s Continental Resources received permission to pump “around half a million barrels of water” from Lake Chickasha.
The water, approximately 21 million gallons, will be used for “fracking” over a period of “about one week from the day they start,” Community Development Director Rachel Bernish told the council.
Fracking, short for hydraulic fracturing, is a technique used to extract natural gas and oil from deep underground rock formations, particularly shale. It involves injecting a high-pressure mixture of water, sand, and chemicals into the well to fracture the rock and release the trapped hydrocarbons.
Continental will pay 20 cents for each 42-gallon barrel of water, or about $100,000, city records reflect. The funds will be credited to the Chickasha Municipal Authority, City Manager Jim Crosby told Southwest Ledger on July 7.
Lake Chickasha encompasses 1,400 surface acres and contains more than five billion gallons of water, according to the Oklahoma Water Resources Board.
• A public auction and sale of oil and gas mining leases on 12 tracts of city-owned land totaling 51 net mineral acres was authorized by the council. The auction will be advertised for a month and bids will be opened Aug. 18 in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 117 N. Fourth St.
Most of the lots are in the Chickasha OT addition, but one is in Elliott’s First Addition, another is in the Highland Park Addition, and the biggest lease – 45.8 acres – is in Rose Hill Cemetery at Grand Avenue and Ninth Street.
The lease term is three years “and as long thereafter” as oil and/or gas or any other minerals “are produced” from the land.
Responding to a question from Councilman Charlie Burruss, City Attorney Amanda Mullins said the auction was placed on the council’s agenda because she was “contacted by one company about this.” The council approved the measure 8-0-1; Burruss, whose profession is oil and gas mineral management, abstained.