Okla. Admin. Code § 165:10-1-2
The following words and terms, when used in this Chapter, shall have the following meaning unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
"Agent" means any person authorized by another person to act for him.
"Aquifer" means a geological formation, group of formations, or part of a formation that is capable of yielding a significant amount of water to a well or spring.
"Area of exposure" means an area within a circle constructed with the point of escape of poisonous gas (hydrogen sulfide) as its center and the radius of exposure as its radius.
"Associated gas" means any gas produced from a Commission ordered combination oil and gas reservoir in which allowed rates of production are based upon volumetric withdrawals.
"BS&W" means basic sediment and water which is that portion of fluids and/or solids that settle in the bottom of storage tanks and/or treating vessels and is unsaleable to the first purchaser in its present form. BS&W usually consists of water, paraffin, sand, scale, rust, and other sediments.
"Barrel" means 42 (U.S.) gallons at 60 F at atmospheric pressure.
"Basic sediment pit" means a pit used in conjunction with a tank battery for storage of basic sediment removed from a production vessel or from the bottom of an oil storage tank.
"Blowout" means the uncontrolled escape of oil or gas, or both, from any formation.
"Blowout preventer" means a heavy casinghead control fitted with special gates and/or rams which can be closed around the drill pipe or which completely closes the top of the casing.
"Blowout preventer stack" means the assembly of well control equipment including preventers, spools, valves, and nipples connected to the top of the casinghead.
"Business day" means a day that is not a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday.
"Carrier", or "transporter", or "taker" means any person moving or transporting oil or gas away from a lease or from any common source of supply.
"Casing pressure" means the pressure within the casing or between the casing and tubing at the wellhead.
"Choke manifold" means an assembly of valves, chokes, gauges, and lines used to control the rate of flow from the well when the blowout preventers are closed.
"Class II fluids" means substances which are brought to the surface during oil and gas drilling, completion, production and plugging, enhanced recovery, or natural gas storage operations.
"Closed pit system" means steel tanks when designated on an OCC Form 1000, unless otherwise stated, for the handling and storage of drilling fluids and/or other deleterious substances produced, obtained, or used in connection with the drilling, re-entry, or deepening of a well.
"Closure" means the practice of dewatering, trenching, filling, leveling, terracing, and/or vegetating a pit site after its useful life is reached in order to restore or reclaim the site to near its original condition.
"Commercial disposal well" means a well where the operator receives and disposes of Class II fluids from multiple well owners/operators and receives compensation for these services and where the operator's primary business objective is to provide these services.
"Commercial pit" is a disposal facility which is authorized by Commission order and used for the disposal, storage, and handling substances or soils contaminated by deleterious substances produced, obtained, or used in connection with drilling and/or production operations. This does not include a disposal well pit.
"Commercial recycling facility" means a facility that is authorized by Commission order to recycle materials defined as deleterious substances in OAC 165:10-1-2. Such substances must undergo at least one treatment process and must be recycled into a marketable product for resale and/or have some beneficial use. This definition does not include the reuse of drilling mud that was previously utilized in drilling or plugging operations.
"Commercial soil farming" means the practice of soil farming or land applying drilling fluids and/or other deleterious substances produced, obtained, or used in connection with the drilling of a well or wells at an off-site location. Multiple applications to the same land are likely.
"Commission" means the Corporation Commission of the State of Oklahoma.
"Common source of supply" or "pool" means "that area which is underlaid or which, from geological or other scientific data, or from drilling operations, or other evidence, appears to be underlaid by a common accumulation of oil and/or gas; provided that, if any such area is underlaid, or appears from geological or other scientific data or from drilling operations, or other evidence, to be underlaid by more than one common accumulation of oil or gas or both, separated from each other by strata of earth and not connected with each other, then such area shall, as to each said common accumulation of oil or gas or both, shall be deemed a separate common source of supply." [52. O.S.A. §86.1(c)].
"Completion/fracture/workover pit" means a pit used for temporary storage of spent completion fluids, frac fluids, workover fluids, drilling fluids, silt, debris, water, brine, oil scum, paraffin, or other deleterious substances which have been cleaned out of the wellbore of a well being completed, fractured, recompleted, or worked over.
"Condensate" means a liquid hydrocarbon which:
"Conductor casing" means a casing string which is often set and cemented at a shallow depth to support and protect the top of the borehole from erosion while circulating and drilling the surface casing hole.
"Conservation Division" means the Division of the Commission charged with the administration and enforcement of the rules of this Chapter.
"Contingency plan" is a written document which provides for 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 poisonous gas such as hydrogen sulfide.
"Contractor" means any person who contracts with another person for the performance of prescribed work.
"Cubic foot of gas" means the volume of gas contained in one cubic foot of space at an absolute pressure of 14.65 pounds per square inch and at a temperature of 60°F. Conversion of volumes to conform to standard conditions shall be made in accordance with Ideal Gas Laws corrected for deviation from Boyle's Law when the pressure at point of measurement is in excess of 200 pounds per square inch gauge.
"Date of completion" means:
"Day" means a period of 24 consecutive hours. For reporting purposes, it shall be from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. the following day.
"Deleterious substances" means any chemical, salt water, oil field brine, waste oil, waste emulsified oil, basic sediment or mud produced or used in the drilling, development, production, transportation, refining, and processing of oil, gas and/or brine mining.
"Design mud weight" means the planned drilling mud weight to be used. This mud weight is used in the design of the casing strings.
"Design wellhead pressure" means the maximum anticipated wellhead pressure which is expected to be experienced on the inside of the casing string and on wellhead equipment. This pressure is used to design the casing string and to select wellhead equipment with sufficient working pressure rating.
"Development" means any work which actively looks toward bringing in production, such as erecting rigs, building tankage, drilling wells, etc.
"Directional drilling" means intentional changing of the direction of the well from the vertical.
"Director of Conservation" means the person in official charge of the Conservation Division.
"Discharge" means the release or setting free by any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, or dumping of substances.
"Distressed well" means a well authorized by Commission order to produce at an unrestricted rate in the interest of public safety due to technical difficulties which temporarily cannot be controlled.
"Diverter" means a device attached to the wellhead to close the vertical access and direct any flow into a line away from the rig. Diverters differ from blowout preventers in that flow is not stopped but rather the flow path is redirected away from the rig.
"Duly authorized representative" means, for the purpose of underground injection well applications, that person or position having a responsibility for the underground injection well.
"Emergency pit" means a pit used for the storage of excessive or unanticipated amounts of fluids during an immediate emergency situation in the drilling or operation of a well, such as a well blowout or a pipeline rupture. This does not include a spill prevention structure required by local, state, or federal regulations.
"Enhanced recovery operation" means the introduction of fluid or energy into a common source of supply for the purpose of increasing the recovery of oil therefrom according to a plan which has been approved by the Commission after notice and hearing.
"Enhanced recovery well" means a well producing in an enhanced recovery operation in accordance with Commission order.
"Exchangeable Sodium Percentage (ESP)" is the relative amount of the sodium ion present on the soil surface, expressed as a percentage of the total Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC). Since the determination of CEC is time consuming and expensive, a practical and satisfactory correlation between the Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR) and ESP was established. The SAR is defined elsewhere in this Section. ESP can be estimated by the following empirical formula: ESP = 100 (-0.0126 + 0.01475 x SAR) / 1 + (-0.0126 + 0.01475 x SAR).
"Exempted aquifer" means an aquifer or its portion that meets the criteria in the definition of "underground source of drinking water" or in the definition of "treatable water", but which has been exempted according to the procedures in 165:5-7-28 and 165:10-5-14.
"Excess water" means water that occurs when storm water, meltwater, water derived from incoming product or other surface water sources accumulates on a facility and combines, blends or mixes with a deleterious substance.
"Facility" means, for the purposes of 165:10-21-15, any building(s), parts of a building, equipment, property, or vehicles that are actively engaged in the reuse, recycling, or ultimate destruction of deleterious substances pursuant to 68 O.S. Supp. 1986, §2357.14-§2357.20.
"Field" means the general area underlaid by one or more common sources of supply.
"Flare pit" means a pit which contains flare equipment and which is used for temporary storage of liquid hydrocarbons which are sent to the flare but are not burned due to equipment malfunction. Flare pits may be used in conjunction with tank batteries or wells.
"Flowing well" means any well from which oil or gas is produced naturally and without artificial lifting equipment.
"Fresh water strata" means a strata from which fresh water may be produced in economical quantities.
"Gas" means any petroleum hydrocarbon existing in the gaseous phase.
"Gas allowable" or "allowable gas" means the amount of natural gas authorized to be produced from any well by order of the Commission or as provided by statute.
"Gas lift" means any method of lifting liquid to the surface by injecting gas into the well bore from which production is obtained.
"Gas repressuring" means the injection of gas into a common source of supply to restore or increase the gas energy of a reservoir.
"GOR (Gas/Oil Ratio)" means the ratio of the gas produced in standard cubic feet to one barrel of oil produced during any stated period. Condensate and load oil excepted under 165:10-13-6 shall not be considered as oil for purposes of determining GOR.
"Hardship well" means a well authorized by Commission order to produce at a specified rate because reasonable cause exists to expect that production below said rate would damage the well and cause waste.
"Hydraulic fracturing operations" means operations on a well wherein fluid is applied for the express purpose of initiating or propagating fractures in a target geologic formation.
"Hydrogen sulfide gas (H2S)" means a toxic poisonous gas with a chemical composition of H2S which is sometimes found mixed with and produced with fluids from oil and gas wells.
"Hydrologically sensitive area" means a principal bedrock aquifer, the recharge or potential recharge area of a principal bedrock aquifer, or an unconsolidated alluvium or terrace deposit, according to the Oklahoma Geological Survey "Maps Showing Principal Groundwater Resources and Recharge Areas in Oklahoma" or other maps approved by the Commission.
"Hydrostatic head" or "hydrostatic pressure" means the pressure which exists at any point in the wellbore due to the weight of the column of fluid or gas above that point.
"Illegal gas" means gas which has been produced within the State from any well or wells in violation of any rule, regulation, or order of the Commission, as distinguished from gas produced within the State not in violation of any such rule, regulation, or order which is "legal gas".
"Illegal oil" means oil which has been produced within the State from any well or wells in violation of any rule, regulation or order of the Commission, as distinguished from oil produced within the State not in violation of any such rule, regulation, or order which is "legal oil".
"Intermediate casing" means the casing string or strings run after setting the surface casing and prior to setting the production string or liner.
"Kick" means the intrusion of formation liquids or gas that results in an increase in circulation pit volume. Without corrective measures, this condition can result in a blowout.
"Land application" is the application of deleterious substances and/or soils contaminated by deleterious substances to the land for the purpose of disposal or land treatment; also known as soil farming.
"Lease allowable" means the total of the allowables of the individual wells on the lease.
"Liner" means a length of casing used downhole as an extension to a previously installed casing string to case the hole for further drilling operations and/or for producing operations.
"Meter" means an instrument for measuring and indicating or recording the volumes of gases or liquids.
"Mud" means any mixture of water and clay or other material as the term is commonly used in the industry.
"Multi-well system" means two or more wells that have intersecting well-bores or laterals.
"Multiple zone completion" means the completion of any well so as to permit the production from more than one common source of supply, with such common sources of supply completely segregated.
"Noncommercial pit" means an earthen pit which is located either on-site or off-site and is used for the handling, storage, or disposal of deleterious substances or soils contaminated by deleterious substances produced, obtained, or used in connection with the drilling and/or operation of a well or wells, and is operated by the generator of the waste. This does not include a disposal well pit.
"Normal pressure" means a formation pore pressure, proportional to depth, which is roughly equal to the hydrostatic pressure gradient of a column of salt water (.465 psi/ft).
"Off-site reserve pit" means a pit located off-site which is used for the handling, storage, or disposal of drilling fluids and/or cuttings.
"Oil" or "crude oil", means, for purposes of these regulations, any petroleum hydrocarbon, except condensate, produced from a well in liquid form by ordinary production methods.
"Oil allowable" or "allowable oil" means the amount of oil authorized to be produced from any well by order of the Commission.
"Operator" means the person who is duly authorized and in charge of the development of a lease or the operation of a producing property.
"Overage" means the oil or gas delivered to a carrier, transporter, or taker in excess of the allowable set by the Commission for any given period.
"Owner" means the person or persons who have the right to drill into and to produce from any common source of supply, and to appropriate the production either for himself, or for himself and others.
"Person" means any natural person, corporation, association, partnership, receiver, trustee, guardian, executor, administrator, fiduciary, or representative of any kind, and shall include the plural.
"Plug" means the closing off, in a manner prescribed by the Commission, of all oil, gas, and waterbearing formations in any producing or nonproducing wellbore before such well is abandoned.
"Pollution" means the contamination of fresh water or soil, either surface or subsurface, by salt water, mineral brines, waste oil, oil, gas, and/or other deleterious substances produced from or obtained or used in connection with the drilling, development, producing, refining, transporting, or processing of oil or gas within the State of Oklahoma.
"Pool" See "common source of supply".
"Potential" means the properly determined capacity of a well to produce oil or gas, or both, under conditions prescribed by the Commission.
"Primary well" means a wellbore that, as part of a multi-well system, serves as the conduit through which oil and gas is produced to the surface.
"Producer" See "Operator" or "Owner".
"Production casing" means the casing string set above or through the producing zone of a well which serves the purpose of confining and/or producing the well production fluids.
"Productivity index" means the daily production of oil in barrels per unit pressure differential between the static reservoir pressure and the stabilized flowing pressure during flow at a stated rate.
"Proration period" means:
"Public area" means a dwelling place, a business, church, school, hospital, school bus stop, government building, a public road, all or any portion of a park, city, town, village, or other similar area that can reasonably be expected to be populated by humans.
"Public street" or "road" means any federal, state, county, or municipal street or road owned or maintained for public access or use.
"Public water supply well(s)" or "public water well(s)" means wells in a system for the provision to the public of water for human consumption through pipes or other constructed conveyances, and which wells are identified in a database maintained by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.
"Purchaser" or "transporter" means any person who acting alone or jointly with any person or persons, via his own, affiliated or designated carrier, transporter, or taker, shall directly or indirectly purchase, take, or transport by any means whatsoever or otherwise remove from any lease, oil or gas, and/or other hydrocarbons produced from any common source of supply in this State, excepting royalty portions from leases owned by that person.
"Radius of exposure" means that radius constructed with the point of escape of poisonous (hydrogen sulfide) gas as its starting point and its length calculated by use of the Pasquill-Gifford equations.
"Reclaimed water" means wastewater from municipal wastewater treatment and/or public water supply treatment plants that has gone through various treatment processes to meet specific water quality criteria with the intent of being used in a beneficial manner.
"Reclaimer" or "reclamation plant" includes any person licensed by the Oklahoma Tax Commission pursuant to 68 O.S.§1015.1 who reclaims or salvages or in any way removes or extracts oil from waste products associated with the production, storage, or transportation of oil including, but not limited to BS&W, tank bottoms, pit and waste oil, and/or waste oil residue.
"Recomplete" or "recompletion" means any operation to:
"Recycling" is the reuse, processing, reclaiming, treating, neutralizing, or refining of materials and by-products into a product of beneficial use which, if discarded, would be deleterious substances.
"Recycling/reuse pit" means a pit which is used for the storage and recycling or reuse of deleterious substances, is located off-site, and is operated by the generator of the waste.
"Re-enter" or "re-entry" is the act of entering a plugged well for the purpose of utilizing said well for the production of oil or gas, for the disposal of fluids therein, for a service well, or for the salvaging of tubing or casing therefrom.
"Regular mail" means first class United States Mail, postage prepaid, and includes hand delivery. Wherever in OAC 165:10 a person is directed to mail by regular mail, such directive shall not preclude mailing by restricted mail.
"Remediation pit" means a pit which is used for the handling, storage, or disposal of deleterious substances and/or soils contaminated by deleterious substances which are relocated to the pit for the purpose of remediating a site which is known to be or suspected to be causing pollution.
"Reserve pit" or "circulation pit" means a pit located either on-site or off-site which is used in conjunction with a drilling rig for the handling, storage, or disposal of drilling fluids and/or cuttings.
"Reservoir" See "common source of supply".
"Reservoir pressure" means the static or stabilized pressure in pounds per square inch existing at the face of the formation of an oil or gas well.
"Reuse" is the introduction (or reintroduction) into an industrial, manufacturing, or disposal process of a material which would otherwise be classified as a deleterious substance. A material will be considered "used or reused" if it is either:
"Rotating head" means a rotating, pressure sealing device used in drilling operations utilizing air, gas, foam, or any other drilling fluid whose hydrostatic pressure is less than the formation pressure.
"Secretary" means the duly appointed and qualified Secretary, Assistant Secretary or Acting Secretary of the Commission, or any person appointed by the Commission to act as such Secretary during the absence, inability, or disqualification of the Secretary to act.
"Separator" means any apparatus for separating oil, gas, and water as they are produced from a well at the surface.
"Service well" means a well that, as part of a multi-well system, is used for drilling laterals, stimulation, or maintenance, or functions in any capacity other than as a conduit to the surface for the production of oil and gas.
"Slick spot" means a small area of soil having a puddled, crusted, or smooth surface and an excess of exchangeable sodium. The soil is generally silty or clayey, is slippery when wet, and is low in productivity.
"Slit trench" means a pit or bermed area at the drilling site used for the temporary storage of drilling fluids and/or cuttings to provide access for equipment to remove the contents off site.
"Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR)" means the index which indicates the relative abundance of sodium ions in solution as compared to the combined concentration of calcium and magnesium ions. It is calculated as follows: SAR = (Na ppm/23.0) / sq. root of [ {(Ca ppm/20.02) + (Mg ppm/12.16)} / 2] where Na=Sodium, Ca=Calcium, and Mg=Magnesium.
"Soil farming" means the application of oilfield drilling or produced wastes to the soil for the purpose of disposing of the waste without being a detriment to water or land; also known as land application.
"Spill containment pit" mean a permanent pit which is used for the emergency storage of oil and/or saltwater spilled as a result of any equipment malfunction.
"Subnormal pressure" means the formation pore pressure, proportional to depth, which is less than a hydrostatic pressure gradient of .465 psi/ft.
"Sulfide stress cracking" means the cracking phenomenon which is the result of corrosive action of hydrogen sulfide on susceptible metals under stress.
"Surface casing" means the first casing string designed and run to protect the treatable water formations and/or control fluid or gas flow from the well.
"Tank bottoms" means the liquids and/or solids in that portion of a storage facility below the sales line or connection that are unsaleable to the crude oil first purchaser in its present form. Tank bottoms may consist of a combination of several elements including, but not limited to, oil, BS&W, and treating fluids.
"Treatable water" means, for purposes of setting surface casing and other casing strings, subsurface water in its natural state, useful or potentially useful for drinking water for human consumption, domestic livestock, irrigation, industrial, municipal, and recreational purposes, and which will support aquatic life, and contains less than 10,000 mg/liter total dissolved solids or less than 5,000 ppm chlorides. Treatable water includes, but is not limited to, fresh water.
"Trenching" means the practice of constructing trenches in or adjacent to a pit for the purpose of relocating all or a portion of the solids so as to facilitate closure.
"Truck wash pit" means a pit used for the temporary storage of fluids generated from the washing or cleaning of a motor vehicle, trailer or container used to transport or store deleterious substances.
"Ultimate destruction" means the treatment of a deleterious substance such that both its weight and volume remaining for disposal have been substantially reduced, and there is no demonstrated process or technology commercially available to further reduce its weight and volume and remove or reduce its harmful properties, if any. For the purposes of demonstrating a substantial reduction in weight and volume, any aqueous portion separated from the balance of a waste that meets drinking water standards or is evaporated into the ambient air shall count toward the weight and volume reduction.
"Underage" means the volume of allowable oil or gas not actually delivered to a carrier, transporter, or taker during any given proration period.
"Underground Source of Drinking Water (USDW)" means an aquifer or its portion which:
"Unit operations" means a unit consisting of a portion of a lease, a lease, or more than one lease or portions thereof which covers contiguous lands containing one or more common sources of supply which has been approved by Commission order as a unit for the purpose of unitized management, after notice and hearing.
"Vacuum" means pressure below the prevailing pressure of the atmosphere.
"Waste" means:
"Waste oil" shall include, but not be limited to, crude oil or other hydrocarbons used or produced in the process of drilling for, developing, producing, or processing oil or gas from wells, oil retained on cuttings as a result of the use of oil-based drilling muds, or any residue from any oil storage facility on a producing lease or on a commercial disposal operation or pit. The term "waste oil" shall not include any refined hydrocarbons to which lead has been added.
"Waste oil residue" means that portion of waste oil remaining after treatment and after the saleable liquids and water have been extracted. Waste oil residue is a type of waste oil.
"Well log" or "well record" means a systematic, detailed and correct record of formations encountered in the drilling of a well.
Okla. Admin. Code § 165:10-1-2