re: Lawmakers rush to stop 'catastrophic-level event' at Texas oil fields

Well, the idea is to drill into sands, which typically have shale both above and below, right? The shale is what's extracted, er well as a solute in aqueous form. Fracking is an an extreme example as concentrated HCl or ~equivalent is injected to dissolve whatever rather than relying on water. And the formations are typically consistent in a particular field, the only variance being total vertical depth to reach them as the surface's height above mean sea level varies

Seems to me that if it hasn't happened organically, then you have to create a slurry or mud before extraction is possible. Water should typically be available in the water table, but would need to be injected into the right location, no? I'd venture you need a water source nearby, aquifer/river or creek/large lake or reservoir/ to supply an injection well(s), which would saturate whatever formation and provide the solvent for creating the slurry for x amount of production wells thereafter. CO2 entry would likely find it's way in as part of the drilling fluid or maybe dissolved carbonates in closer-surface formations that are now dissolved in the fluid and have undergone redox rxns