Two oil and gas companies agreed to temporarily shut down wastewater disposal wells in Arkansas that some experts believe are connected to a recent swarm of earthquakes.

The State Oil and Gas Commission was scheduled to request the shutdowns at an emergency session on Friday morning, six days after Arkansas experienced its largest earthquake in 35 years.

The companies that own the wells, Chesapeake Energy and Clarita, agreed to the request before the meeting, said Shane Khoury, deputy director of the commission, though company officials did not support the theory, held by some state researchers, that the wells may be connected to the earthquakes.

Such wells are dug for the disposal of wastewater that is a byproduct of natural-gas drilling. Researchers have long studied a potential connection between the use of disposal wells and earthquakes, a correlation that researchers for the Arkansas Geological Survey have observed in recent months.