Ala. Admin. Code r. 400-2-1-.05

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

Section 400-2-1-.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 has not been classified as temporarily abandoned or shut in pursuant to Rule 400-2-4-.14, 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)Area of exposure shall mean the area within a circle constructed with the point of escape as its center and the radius of exposure as its radius.

(3)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.

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

(5)Blow-out preventershall mean a heavy casinghead 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string, or work string, or that completely closes the top of the casing if the drill string, tubing, or other pipe is withdrawn.

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

(7)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.

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

(9)Casinghead gas shall mean any gas or vapor or both, indigenous to an oil pool and produced from such pool with the oil.

(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)Cleansing shall mean the removal or neutralization of any impurities found in produced oil or natural gas.

(13)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.

(14)Condensate shall mean the liquid produced by the condensation of gas or vapor, either after it leaves the reservoir or while still in the reservoir.

(15)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 drilling 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.

(16)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.

(17)Contingency plan shall mean a written document that shall provide an organized plan of action for alerting and protecting the public within an area of exposure following the accidental release of a potentially hazardous volume of hydrogen sulfide.

(18)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.

(19)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.

(20)Developed area or developed unit shall mean a drainage unit having a well completed thereon which is capable of producing oil or gas in paying quantities; however, in the eventit 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.

(21)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.

(22)Drainage or production unitshall 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."

(23)Drilling unit shall mean the unit temporarily assigned a well for the purpose of exploring, evaluating, or delineating the oil and gas resources underlying an offshore tract or section in submerged offshore lands, or a portion thereof. A drilling unit may be designated as a drainage or production unit after notice and hearing.

(24)Drilling and development unit shall mean the unit temporarily assigned to one or more wells for the purpose of exploring, evaluating, or delineating the oil and gas resources underlying an offshore tract in submerged offshore lands, or a portion thereof. Production of oil and gas from a drilling and development unit is prohibited, except for test production until further action of the Board establishing a production unit or unit operations. Drilling and development units established in accordance with Rule 400-2-2-.02 may consist of an entire offshore tract, or a portion thereof as described below:

(a)One-quarter (1/4) offshore tract unit: a spacing unit comprising one-quarter (1/4) of a regular offshore tract, configured as a square, which has one corner in common with the offshore tract, and contains twelve hundred ninety (1,290) acres, more or less.

(b)One-half (1/2) offshore tract unit: a spacing unit comprising two (2) one-quarter (1/4) offshore tracts that have one offshore tract boundary in common, and containing two thousand five hundred eighty (2,580) acres, more or less.

(c)Three-quarter (3/4) offshore tract unit: a spacing unit comprising three (3) one-quarter (1/4) offshore tracts and containing three thousand eight hundred seventy (3,870) acres, more or less.

(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)Facility modification shall mean any change in the operation, such as an increase in throughput, in excess of the currently permitted capacity, or any change that would increase the radius of exposure.

(27)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.

(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 casing head gas 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)Illegal oil shall mean oil 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 oil produced within the State of Alabama not in excess of the amount so allowed, which is legal oil.

(32)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.

(33)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 illegalgas.

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

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

(36)Month and calendar month shall mean the period orinterval of time from 7:00 a.m. on the first (1st) day of anymonth of the calendar to 7:00 a.m. of the first (1st) day of thenext succeeding month of the calendar.

(37)Nonconsenting owner shall mean an owner having aworking interest in an oil and gas lease or an unleased oil andgas interest in an established or proposed unit, who has reachedno agreement in writing with the Board-appointed operator of theunit relative to the terms and conditions which will govern themanner in which his interest shall be developed and operated.

(38)Offshore plant shall mean any combination of aproduction facility or a processing facility operated as hereindefined and located upon an offshore platform or fixed structure.

(39)Offshore tract shall mean those divisions ofsubmerged offshore lands shown on Alabama Department ofConservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) plats entitled "Stateof Alabama, Chart of Submerged State Lands, Oil and Gas LeaseTracts," dated May 1984, Project No. 2, 5-L-27, revised October31, 1990, Mobile and Baldwin Counties, Alabama, and anysubsequent revisions thereof.

(40)Oil shall mean crude petroleum oil and otherhydrocarbons, regardless of gravity, which are produced at thewell in liquid form by ordinary production methods and which arenot the result of condensation of gas after it leaves the pool.

(41)Oil well shall mean a well capable of producingoil from an oil pool or oil pools.

(42)Onshore lands shall mean all lands within theterritorial jurisdiction of the State of Alabama except thoselands in Baldwin and Mobile Counties that are overlain by water.

(43)Operatorshall mean any person who, is authorizedby the Board to operate an oil, gas, or Class II injection well,or production or processing facility, including the handling anddisposal of wastes that may be generated during operation of awell, or production or processing facility. The person named asoperator according to the most current records of the Board ischarged with complying with the oil and gas statutes and therules and regulations of the Board.

(44)Owner shall mean the person who has the right todrill into and to produce from any pool and to appropriate theproduction either for himself or for himself and another, orothers.

(45)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.

(46)Pool shall mean an underground reservoircontaining a common accumulation of crude petroleum oil ornatural gas or both and each zone of a general structure, whichis completely separated from any other zone in the structure. Theclassification of such pool, as to oil or gas, is determined after notice and hearing and is based on the type of hydrocarbonsin such pool.

(47)Pressure base shall mean an absolute pressureagreed upon or set as a base for converting the volume of gasmetered to a correct volume.

(48)Pressure maintenance shall mean the injection ofgas, water, or other fluid into an oil or gas pool to maintainpressure or retard pressure decline in the pool for the purposeof enhanced recovery.

(49)Processing facility shall mean either a cleansingfacility or an extraction facility.

(a)Cleansing facility shall mean a facility designedto remove or neutralize any impurities, such as hydrogen sulfideand carbon dioxide, found in produced oil or natural gas.

(b)Extraction facility shall mean a facility designedto separate or remove substances from the produced hydrocarbonsby chemical reactions or physical actions and converting thesubstances to new products such as natural gas liquids andelemental sulfur.

(50)Product shall mean any commodity made from oil orgas, and shall include refined crude oil, crude tops, toppedcrude, 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, wasteoil, blended gasoline, lubricating oil, blends or mixtures of oilwith one or more liquid products or by-products derived orseparated from oil or gas, and blends or mixtures of two or moreliquid products or by-products derived or separated from oil,gas, or sulfur whether hereinabove enumerated or not.

(51)Production equipment shall mean piping and vesselsused in the production, extraction, recovery, lifting,stabilization, separation, initial treating, and storage ofproduced hydrocarbons.

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

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

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

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

(54) Public area shall include but not be limited to adwelling, place of business, church, school, hospital, school busstop, government building, a public road, all or any portion of apark, city, town, village, or other similar area that can expectto be populated.

(55)Public infringement shall mean a public area or apublic road that has been established within an area of exposureto the degree that such infringement would change the applicable requirements of Rule 400-2-8-.04 to those operations responsiblefor creating the area of exposure.

(56)Public meeting shall mean a meeting held by theSupervisor to provide general information and receive commentsconcerning operations in a specific area.

(57)Public road shall mean any federal, state, county,or municipal street or road owned or maintained for public accessor use.

(58)Purchaser shall mean any person who acquires titleto oil, gas or condensate by purchase from an operator or otherperson.

(59)Radius of exposure shall mean that radiusconstructed with the point of escape as its starting point andits length calculated as provided for in Rule 400-2-8-.04.

(60)Recompletion or reworking shall mean any operationthat requires a change in the physical construction of a wellafter its initial completion to secure production when there hasbeen none, or to restore production that has ceased, or toincrease production. Such operations include, but are not limitedto, any changes in the depths of perforations, method of lift,tubing depths, packer depths, restoring pressure integrity tocasing or tubing, etc.

(61)Separator shall mean an apparatus for separatingoil, gas, condensate, water, etc., as it is produced.

(62)Shut-in pressure shall mean the pressure in poundsper square inch (psi) at the well head when the well iscompletely shut in.

(63)Shut-in well shall mean, for purposes only ofcompliance with requirements herein, a well that is capable ofproducing hydrocarbons but must remain shut-in until connected toa gathering system, pipeline or processing facility; or for someother reason.

(64)Site. See Location.

(65)Sour gas operations shall mean a facility thathandles hydrogen sulfide concentrations in the system equal toone hundred (100) parts per million (ppm) or more.

(66)Spacing unit shall mean a unit established by theBoard for each well. A spacing unit may either be (a) a drillingunit or (b) a drainage or production unit.

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

(68)Spud shall mean, the commencement of thecontinuous physical operation of drilling a well in which theland surface is penetrated by a drill bit.

(69)State shall mean the State of Alabama.

(70)Storage operatorshall mean any company, person,corporation, partnership, limited partnership, association ofpersons, municipality, association of municipalities, publicutility, gas district, or other entity, authorized by the Boardpursuant to Section 9-17-152 of the Code to operate any storage facility.

(71)Storage well shall mean any well drilled orconverted for use in an Underground Storage Facility.

(72)Submerged offshore lands shall mean all landswithin Baldwin and Mobile Counties that are overlain by water andwithin the territorial jurisdiction of the State.

(73)Sulfide stress cracking shall mean the crackingphenomenon which is the result of corrosive action of hydrogensulfide on susceptible metals under stress.

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

(75)Tank shall mean the receptacle into which the oil,condensate, or produced water is produced either directly from awell or from a well through a separator, gun barrel, or similar equipment.

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

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

(78)Transporter shall mean and include any personengaged in the transportation of any petroleum hydrocarbons orproducts thereof within the contemplation of these rules or thelaws of the State of Alabama, and in addition, shall mean anyperson or company who transports wastes by any method other than pipeline.

(79)Turnaround shall mean a scheduled time when anoperation is shut down for routine maintenance, inspections, orinstallation of new equipment.

(80)Underground storage shall mean the storage of gasin an underground reservoir, stratum or formation of the earth.

(81)Underground storage facility shall mean anunderground reservoir or an underground solution-mined cavity,the wellbore tubular goods, the wellhead, and related equipmentto the last positive shut-off valve before the gathering linethat is used or to be used for the underground storage of gas andall surface and subsurface rights and appurtenances necessary oruseful in the operation of the facility for the undergroundstorage of gas, including any necessary or reasonable buffer zoneas recommended by the storage operator and approved by the Boardfor the purpose of insuring the safe operation of the storage ofgas and to protect the storage facility against pollution,invasion, and escape or migration of gas therefrom, together withany and all subsequent extensions thereof.

(82)Waste, in addition to its ordinary meaning, shallmean "physical waste" as that term is generally understood in theoil and gas industry. Waste shall include:

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

(b) The inefficient storing of oil or condensate andthe locating, spacing, drilling, equipping, operating, orproducing of any oil or gas well or wells in a manner causing ortending to cause unnecessary or excessive surface loss ordestruction of oil, condensate, or gas;

(c) Abuse of the correlative rights and opportunitiesof each owner of oil and gas in a common reservoir due tonon-uniform, disproportionate, and unratable withdrawals, causingundue drainage between tracts of land;

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

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

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

(g) Underground waste, however caused and whether ornot defined;

(h) The creation of fire hazards;

(i) The escape into the open air, from a wellproducing both oil and gas, of gas in excess of the amount whichis 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 forsafety reasons or for the efficient drilling, testing, andoperation of the well; and

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

(83) Wastes are materials to be disposed of orreclaimed that were generated by drilling, completion, workover,production, storage, treatment, processing, or injectionoperations associated with oil and gas wells, Class II injectionwells, production facilities, processing facilities, offshoreplants, or underground storage facilities.

(84)Waters shall mean the water super adjacent toSubmerged Offshore Lands.

(85)Well shall mean any oil or gas well, any welldrilled or being drilled in search of oil and gas, any welldefined as a Class II injection well or any well utilized forunderground storage.

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 thatmeaning which is generally accepted within the oil and gasindustry.

Ala. Admin. Code r. 400-2-1-.05

Filed September 30, 1982. Repealed and New Rule: Filed April 11, 2000; effective May 16, 2000. Amended: FiledJuly 6, 2010; effective August 10, 2010.

Author: Marvin Rogers

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