Ala. Admin. Code r. 400-3-1-.05

Current through Register Vol. 43, No. 1, October 31, 2024

Section 400-3-1-.05 - Definitions

The words defined hereafter shall have the following meaning when used within these rules:

(1)Abandoned well shall mean, for purposes only of compliance with requirements herein, that a well is to be considered abandoned when it has not been used for six (6) consecutive months, and cannot be operated, whether because it was drilled as a dry hole, or has ceased to produce, or operations have not been conducted thereon, or for some other reason.

(2)Barrel shall mean forty-two (42) U.S. gallons, and when used for liquid hydrocarbon volumes it shall be at a temperature of sixty degrees Fahrenheit (60°F), with deductions for the full percent of any basic sediment, water, and other impurities present, ascertained by centrifugal or other recognized and customary tests.

(3)Blow out shall mean any uncontrolled escape of fluids, hydrocarbons, or any other materials from a well.

(4)Blow-out preventer shall mean a heavy casing head device or devices that helps control or prevent a blow out by closing around the drill string, or work string, or that completely closes the top of the casing if the drill string, tubing, or other pipe is withdrawn.

(5)Board shall mean the State Oil and Gas Board of Alabama.

(6)Bottom-hole pressure shall mean the pressure per square inch (psi) at or near the face of the producing horizon obtained by means of a pressure-recording instrument or other method approved by the Board, with readings corrected to a predetermined plane or datum.

(7)Cased completion shall mean a coalbed methane gas well in which production casing is set through the productive coalbed or coalbeds.

(8)Cased/open hole completion shall mean a coalbed methane gas well in which at least one coalbed is completed through casing and at least one coalbed is completed open hole.

(9)Casing pressure shall mean the pressure at the surface of a well between the casing and tubing or between two (2) strings of casing.

(10)Christmas tree (wellhead connection) shall mean an assembly of valves and fittings attached to the head of the casing of a well to control the flow.

(11)Class II injection well shall mean an injection well which is used (1) to inject brine or other fluids which are brought to the surface in connection with natural gas storage operations or oil or natural gas production and which may be commingled with waste waters from plants which are an integral part of production operations, unless those waters are classified as a hazardous waste at the time of injection; (2) for enhanced recovery of oil or natural gas; or (3) for storage of hydrocarbons which are liquid at standard temperature and pressure.

(12)Coalbed methane gas shall mean occluded natural gas found in coalbeds.

(13)Coalbed methane gas field shall mean the area as defined by the operator and approved by the Board which is underlain or appears to be underlain by at least one coalbed, capable of producing occluded natural gas.

(14)Coalbed methane gas well shall mean a well capable of producing occluded natural gas from a coalbed or coalbeds.

(15)Completion shall mean, for purposes only of compliance with requirements herein, that a well is considered completed when drilling operations have ceased or at such other times as the Supervisor may determine.

(16)Compressor station shall mean an installation in a pipeline in which the pressure of gas is raised for transmission through pipelines.

(17)Consenting owner shall mean an owner having a working interest in an oil and gas lease or an unleased oil and gas interest in an established or proposed spacing unit, who has reached an agreement in writing with the Board-appointed operator of the unit relative to the terms and conditions which will govern the manner in which his interest shall be developed and operated.

(18)Conservation shall mean the conserving, preserving, guarding, or protecting of oil and gas resources of the State by obtaining the maximum efficiency with minimum waste in the production, transportation, processing, treating, and marketing of the nonrenewable oil and gas resources of the State.

(19)Cubic foot of gas shall mean a volume of gas expressed in cubic feet and computed at a base pressure of 14.65 pounds per square inch absolute (psia), and flowing temperature of sixty degrees Fahrenheit (60°F); correction to be made for pressure deviation and for specific gravity according to tests made by the Balance Method, or other methods customary to the industry if approved by the Supervisor.

(20)Day shall mean a period of twenty-four (24) consecutive hours from 7:00 a.m. one day to 7:00 a.m. the following day.

(21)Developed area or developed unit shall mean a drainage or production unit having a well completed thereon which is capable of producing oil or gas in paying quantities; however, in the event it is shown, and the Board finds, that a part of any unit is nonproductive, then the developed part of the unit shall include only that part found to be productive.

(22)Disposer shall mean any person or company who receives wastes for disposal in a disposal facility that is in compliance with existing state and federal regulations.

(23)Drainage or production unit shall mean the area in a pool, which may be drained efficiently and economically by one well. For simplicity, the term "production unit" is used hereinafter from time to time in place of the term "drainage or production unit."

(24)Drilling unit shall mean an administrative unit established by the Board to provide and allow for the drilling of a well.

(25)Enhanced recovery shall mean the increased recovery from a pool achieved by flooding, pressuring, cycling, or pressure maintenance and which may include the injection into the pool of a substance or a form of energy extrinsic to the pool.

(26)Field shall mean the general area which is underlain or appears to be underlain by at least one pool, and field shall include the underground reservoir or reservoirs containing crude oil or natural gas, or both. The words field and pool mean the same thing when only one underground reservoir is involved; however, field, unlike pool, may relate to two or more pools.

(27)Flowline shall mean a pipeline that transports full well stream production from a well site to the production equipment where produced hydrocarbons are first separated, dehydrated, commingled with other production, or otherwise processed or to the point of custody transfer.

(28)Forced integrated unit or forced pooled unit shall mean a spacing unit in which all nonconsenting owners have been ordered by the Board to integrate or pool their tracts and interests and develop them in accordance with law and the rules and regulations of the Board.

(29)Gas shall mean all natural gas, including casinghead gas and occluded natural gas found in coalbeds, and all other liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons not defined as oil.

(30)Gas well shall mean a well capable of producing gas from a gas pool or gas pools.

(31)Gathering line shall mean all pipelines, equipment, facilities, or buildings downstream of production equipment and used in the transportation of hydrocarbons to a treatment or storage facility or to a transmission line.

(32)Gob well shall mean a coalbed methane gas well which is drilled in conjunction with underground mining of one or more coal beds and produces from cavities and fractures resulting from the collapse of an underground mine. A gob well is initially drilled as a vertical well and is not considered a gob well until after the well has been mined through and the roof of the mine has collapsed.

(33)Horizontal borehole shall mean a hole drilled horizontally into a coalbed at the mine face of an underground mine.

(34)Illegal gas shall mean gas which has been produced within the State of Alabama from any well or wells in excess of the amount allowed by any rule, regulation, or order of the Board, as distinguished from gas produced within the State of Alabama not in excess of the amount so allowed, which is legal gas.

(35)Illegal product shall mean any product of oil or gas, any part of which was processed or derived, in whole or part, from illegal oil or illegal gas or from any product thereof, as distinguished from legal product, which is a product processed or derived to no extent from illegal oil or illegal gas.

(36)Location or site shall mean the area surrounding a well, production facility, injection facility, storage facility, or other facility that has been developed for oil and gas operations.

(37)Mode of transportation shall mean any waste transportation method including trucks, rail cars, barges, maritime vessels, aircraft, or any other means of transportation acceptable to the Supervisor.

(38)Month and calendar month shall mean the period or interval of time from 7:00 a.m. on the first (1st) day of any month of the calendar to 7:00 a.m. of the first (1st) day of the next succeeding month of the calendar.

(39)Nonconsenting owner shall mean an owner having a working interest in an oil and gas lease or an unleased oil and gas interest in an established or proposed spacing unit, who has reached no agreement in writing with the Board-appointed operator of the unit relative to the terms and conditions which will govern the manner in which his interest shall be developed and operated.

(40)Open hole completion shall mean a coalbed methane gas well in which no production casing is set through the productive coalbed or coalbeds.

(41)Operator shall mean any person who is authorized by the Board to operate an oil, gas, or Class II injection well, or production facility, or engages in the transportation of hydrocarbons by pipeline, including the handling and disposal of wastes that may be generated during operation of a well or production facility. The person named as operator according to the most current records of the Board is charged with complying with the oil and gas statutes and the rules and regulations of the Board.

(42)Owner shall mean the person who has the right to drill into and to produce from any pool and to appropriate the production either for himself or for himself and another, or others.

(43)Person shall mean any natural person, firm, corporation, association, partnership, joint venture, receiver, trustee, guardian, executor, administrator, fiduciary, representative of any kind, or any other group acting as a unit, and the plural as well as the singular number.

(44)Pipe shall mean any pipe or tubing used in the transportation of hydrocarbons or produced waters.

(45)Pipeline shall mean all parts of those physical facilities through which hydrocarbons or produced waters move in transportation, including pipes, valves, and other appurtenances attached to pipes, compressor units, or metering stations.

(46)Pool shall mean an underground reservoir containing a common accumulation of crude petroleum oil or natural gas or both and each zone of a general structure, which is completely separated from any other zone in the structure. The classification of such pool, as to oil or gas, is determined after notice and hearing and is based on the type of hydrocarbons in such pool.

(47)Pressure base shall mean an absolute pressure agreed upon or set as a base for converting the volume of gas metered to a correct volume.

(48)Pressure maintenance shall mean the injection of gas, water, or other fluid into an oil or gas pool to maintain pressure or retard pressure decline in the pool for the purpose of enhanced recovery, or in the case of coalbed methane gas production the withdrawal of water to maintain gas pressure for the purpose of primary or enhanced recovery.

(49)Produced water shall mean water produced from a coalbed methane gas well as a necessary by-product of drilling, completing and producing methane gas from a coalbed or coalbeds.

(50)Product shall mean any commodity made from oil or gas, and shall include refined crude oil, crude tops, topped crude, processed crude petroleum residue from crude petroleum, cracking stock, uncracked fuel oil, fuel oil, treated crude oil, residuum, gas oil, casinghead gasoline, natural gas gasoline, naphtha, distillate, gasoline, kerosene, benzene, wash oil, waste oil, blended gasoline, lubricating oil, blends or mixtures of oil with one or more liquid products or by-products derived or separated from oil or gas, and blends or mixtures of two or more liquid products or by-products derived or separated from oil, gas, or sulfur whether hereinabove enumerated or not.

(51)Production equipment shall mean piping and vessels used in the production, extraction, recovery, lifting, stabilization, separation, initial treating, and storage of produced hydrocarbons.

(52)Production facility shall mean either a separation facility or a treatment facility.

(a)Separation facility shall mean a facility that uses a pressure vessel(s) for the purpose of separating well fluids into gaseous and liquid components.

(b)Treatment facility shall mean a facility that separates well fluids into gaseous and liquid components, with the addition of treatment such as stabilization of liquids from the gaseous phase and the dehydration of the gaseous phase or hydrocarbon liquid knockout.

(53)Production unit is used hereinafter from time to time in place of the term "drainage or production unit."

(54)Purchaser shall mean any person who acquires title to oil, gas or condensate by purchase from an operator or other person.

(55)Recompletion or reworking shall mean any operation that requires a change in the physical construction of a well after its initial completion to secure production when there has been none, or to restore production that has ceased, or to increase production. Such operations include, but are not limited to, any changes in the depths of perforations, packer depths, restoring pressure integrity to casing or tubing, etc.

(56)Rural locations shall mean those locations that lie outside the limits of any incorporated or unincorporated city, town, village, or any other designated residential or commercial area such as a subdivision, a business or shopping center, or a community development.

(57)Separator shall mean an apparatus for separating oil, gas, condensate, water, etc., as it is produced.

(58)Shut-in pressure shall mean the pressure in pounds per square inch (psi) at the well head when the well is completely shut in.

(59)Shut-in well shall mean, for purposes only of compliance with requirements herein, a well that is capable of producing hydrocarbons but must remain shut-in until connected to a gathering system, pipeline or processing facility; or for some other reason.

(60)Site. See Location.

(61)Spacing unit shall mean a unit established by the Board for each well. A spacing unit may either be (a) a drilling unit or (b) a drainage or production unit.

(62)Special field rules shall mean those rules promulgated for, and which are limited in their application to, individual pools and fields within the State of Alabama.

(63)Spud shall mean, the commencement of the continuous physical operation of drilling a well in which the land surface is penetrated by a drill bit.

(64)State shall mean the State of Alabama.

(65)Supervisor shall mean the State Oil and Gas Supervisor.

(66)Temporarily abandoned well shall mean, for purposes only of compliance with the requirements herein, a well that is currently not producing hydrocarbons but that has been approved for future utility by the Supervisor or Board.

(67)Tender shall mean a permit or certificate of clearance, approved and issued or registered under the authority of the Board, for the transportation of oil, gas condensate, or products.

(68)Transmission line shall mean a pipeline operated for the purpose of transporting gas from a gathering line, or gas storage facility to another transmission line, gas storage facility or an end-user distribution system.

(69)Transporter shall mean and include any person engaged in the transportation of any petroleum hydrocarbons or products thereof within the contemplation of these rules or the laws of the State of Alabama, and in addition shall mean any person or company who transports waste by any method other than pipeline.

(70)Underground mine area shall mean an area defined in special field rules to provide for the development and production of coalbed methane gas from gob wells and horizontal boreholes associated with underground mining. Such area may be underground mined or designated as imminently to be mined.

(71)Underground source of drinking water (USDW)

(a) Shall mean an aquifer or its portion:

1. Which supplies any public water system; or

2. Which contains a sufficient quantity of ground water to supply a public water system; and

(i) Currently supplies drinking water for human consumption; or

(ii) Contains fewer than 10,000 mg/1 total dissolved solids; and

(b) Shall mean an aquifer or its portion which is not an exempted aquifer.

(72)Waste, in addition to its ordinary meaning, shall mean "physical waste" as that term is generally understood in the oil and gas industry. Waste shall include:

(a) The inefficient, excessive, or improper use or dissipation of reservoir energy, and the locating, spacing, drilling, equipping, operating, or producing of any oil or gas well or wells in a manner which results or tends to result in reducing the quantity of petroleum hydrocarbons ultimately to be recovered from any pool in this State;

(b) The inefficient storing of oil or condensate and the locating, spacing, drilling, equipping, operating, or producing of any oil or gas well or wells in a manner causing or tending to cause unnecessary or excessive surface loss or destruction of oil, condensate, or gas;

(c) Abuse of the correlative rights and opportunities of each owner of oil and gas in a common reservoir due to non-uniform, disproportionate, and unratable withdrawals, causing undue drainage between tracts of land;

(d) Producing oil or gas in such a manner as to cause unnecessary water channeling or coning;

(e) The operation of any oil well or wells with an inefficient gas-oil ratio;

(f) The drowning with water of any stratum, or part thereof, capable of producing oil or gas, not including the methods necessary for enhanced recovery after approval of the Board;

(g) Underground waste, however caused and whether or not defined;

(h) The creation of fire hazards;

(i) The escape into the open air, from a well producing both oil and gas, of gas in excess of the amount which is necessary in the efficient drilling or operation of the well;

(j) The use of gas, except sour gas, for the manufacture of carbon black;

(k) The escape of gas into the open air, from a well producing gas, in excess of the amount which is necessary for safety reasons or for the efficient drilling, testing, and operation of the well; and

(l) Production of oil, condensate, and gas in excess of reasonable market demand.

(73)Wastes are materials to be disposed of or reclaimed that were generated by drilling, completion, workover, production, storage, treatment, or injection operations associated with oil and gas wells, Class II injection wells, or production facilities.

(74)Well shall mean any oil or gas well, any well drilled or being drilled in search of oil and gas, any well defined as a Class II injection well or any well utilized for the purpose of storing gaseous hydrocarbons.

All other words used herein shall be given their usual, customary, and accepted meaning. All words of a technical nature, or peculiar to the oil and gas industry, shall be given that meaning which is generally accepted within the oil and gas industry.

Ala. Admin. Code r. 400-3-1-.05

Filed August 7, 1984. New Rule: Filed April 11, 2000; effective May 16, 2000. Amended: Filed July 6, 2010; effective August 10, 2 010.

Author: Marvin Rogers

Statutory Authority:Code of Ala. 1975, §§ 9-17-1, etseq.