La. Admin. Code tit. 43 § XIX-103

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 9, September 20, 2024

Section XIX-103 - Application to Drill

A. All applications for permits to drill wells for oil or gas or core test wells below the fresh water sands shall be made on Form MD-10-R or revisions thereof, and mailed or delivered to the district office. These applications, in duplicate, shall be accompanied by three copies of the location plat, preferably drawn to a scale of 1000 feet to the inch. The plats shall be constructed from data compiled by a registered civil engineer or surveyor and shall definitely show the amount and location of the acreage with reference to quarter-section corners, or other established survey points. There shall also be shown all pertinent lease and property lines, leases, offset wells, and the location and distance from the well to the nearest shoulder of any Interstate highway within the boundaries of the plat. When the tract to be drilled is composed of separately-owned interests which have been pooled or unitized, the boundaries to the acreage in each separately-owned interest must be indicated. Plats must have well locations certifications either written on or attached to the well location plats and this certification must be signed by a registered civil engineer, qualified surveyor or a qualified engineer regularly employed by the applicant. If possible the application card shall give the name and address of the drilling contractor, otherwise the information, as soon as determined, shall be supplied by letter to the district manager.

1. Applicants shall furnish a pre-entry notice to the surface owner no less than 30 days prior to commencing construction operations on the drilling location and shall certify that this requirement has been or will be satisfied on the application to drill.

a. The pre-entry notice shall include the following information:

i. the contact name, email address and phone number of the applicant;

ii. the proposed well name and pad location including section, township, range and plat of the pad location, if available;

iii. a statement that construction operations will commence no less than thirty days from the date of the pre-entry notice.

b. No pre-entry notice shall be required if the applicant has a contractual relationship with the surface owner.

c. No pre-entry notice shall be required for preparatory activities such as inspection, surveying, or staking.

d. No pre-entry notice shall be required to drill additional wells on an existing drilling pad provided that applicant does not expand the existing pad or access road.

e. Applicants must include an affidavit on Form AFLN-1, as amended from time to time by the Office of Conservation, with their application certifying compliance with §103. A 1

2. Applicants that receive a drilling permit for a well located within 1,000 feet of an Interstate highway shall furnish a copy of the approved drilling permit and the certified location plat to the appropriate state and local authorities, including all emergency responders.

3. After [effective date of rule], the operator shall certify that it has determined at the time of submitting an application for permit to drill that:

a. it will be able to connect the well to a natural gas gathering system in the general area with sufficient capacity to transport one hundred percent of the volume of natural gas the operator anticipates the well will produce; or

b. it will not be able to connect to a natural gas gathering system in the general area with sufficient capacity to transport one hundred percent of the volume of natural gas the operator anticipates the well will produce. The operator shall state that they will either:

i. shut-in the well until the operator can comply with §103.A.3 a; or

ii. evaluate if well is candidate for flaring based on economic hardship per §3507 B; or

iii. provide a gas capture plan that evaluates and selects one or more beneficial uses until a natural gas gathering system is available, including:

(a). field use;

(b). power generation for alternative use;

(c). enhanced recovery operations; and

(d). other alternative beneficial use that does not result in venting or flaring.

B. When dual completion applications are granted, each well shall be considered as two wells. The production from each sand shall be run through separate lead lines and the production from each sand shall be measurable separately. The department's agent shall designate suitable suffixes to the well number which will serve as reference to each producing sand.

C. No well shall be drilled, nor shall the drilling of a well be commenced, before a permit for such well has been issued by the Office of Conservation; furthermore, any work, such as digging pits, erecting buildings, derricks, etc., which the operator may do or have done, will be done at his own risk and with the full understanding that the Office of Conservation may find it necessary to change the location or deny the permit because of the rules and regulations applying in that instance.

D. No well shall commence drilling below the surface casing until a sign has been posted on the derrick, and subsequently on the well if it is a producer, showing the operator of record of the well, name of lease, section, township, range, and the serial number under which the permit was issued. The obligation to maintain a legible sign remains until abandonment.

E. In order to make the designation of the well, as referred to above, more uniform throughout the state, and thus to facilitate the handling of all matters relative to any particular well, the following system of rules has been developed for use in the naming of wells in the future in Louisiana.

1. In no case shall any operator name or well name exceed 30 characters. A space is equivalent to one character.

a. Abbreviations shall be used whenever possible to comply with the above. It is recommended that "S" be used for sand and "U" for unit.

b. The official well name appearing on Form MD-10-R (Application to Drill) shall be used when reporting on all Office of Conservation forms and also in any correspondence.

2. Lease Wells. All wells drilled on a lease basis shall bear the lessor's surname and initials or given name.

Example:	Lease Name	Well Number
J. R. Smith	Number 2

3. The commissioner shall prescribe or cause to have prescribed the procedure for assigning well and/or nomenclature and shall issue a memorandum concerning same from time to time as the need arises.

a. Developmental units proposed at a hearing shall be named in accordance with the latest memorandum, and the well number shall depend on whether or not there are any other wells in existence on the lease.

b. Any unit maps filed with an application for hearing must reflect proposed unit names in accordance with the latest memorandum.

4. Units with Alternate Unit Wells. For those cases where more than one well serves the same proration unit, the wells shall be named in accordance with the latest memorandum, and the well number shall be followed by the letters ALT in the case of each alternate well.

Example:	Lease Name	Well Number
Hayes Sue; J. R. Smith	Number 1
Hayes Sue; Dave Luke	Number 1 ALT
Hayes Sue; St. Mary	Number 22 ALT

La. Admin. Code tit. 43, § XIX-103

Adopted by the Department of Conservation (August 1943), amended (August 1958), (August 1961), (May 1973), amended by the Department of Natural Resources, Office of Conservation, LR 34:2639 (December 2008), LR 39:515 (March 2013), effective on May 1, 2013, Amended LR 5036 (1/1/2024).

AUTHORITY NOTE: Promulgated in accordance with R.S.30:4 et seq., and R.S. 30:28(I).