La. Admin. Code tit. 43 § XIX-119

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

Section XIX-119 - Well Allowables and Completion

A. New Well and Recompleted Well Allowables

1. Upon completion or recompletion of a well, immediate notice within 24 hours from the time of completion (Sundays and holidays excepted) must be filed in writing with the district office on forms provided by the department. Notice of completion or recompletion of a well may be made by telephone or telegram to the district manager if supplemented by written notice on proper form within three days from the date of completion or recompletion. Wells shall be considered completed when turned into the tanks. A potential and gas/oil ratio test shall then be conducted by the operator or company, and witnessed by an inspector of the department within five days from the date of completion or recompletion (Sundays and holidays excepted).

2. After receipt of the completion reports and reports or tests required by the commissioner, a completed or recompleted well shall be given a daily allowable, determined in the same manner as was used in computing the schedule of daily allowables for the months in which such completion is made.

3. The daily well allowable when determined shall be effective from 7 a.m. on the date of completion or recompletion if the well is completed or recompleted before 7 p.m.; and from 7 a.m. of the following day if the well is completed or recompleted after 7 p.m.; provided the completion or recompletion report has been filed in accordance with the above-mentioned provisions, and if the initial potential and gas/oil ratio test has been made within five days from the date of completion or recompletion.

a. If the completion or recompletion is not reported as provided, then the daily well allowable shall be effective from the date of receipt of the completion or recompletion report, with a one-day tolerance. If the initial potential and gas/oil ratio test is not made within five days from the date of completion or recompletion, the daily well allowable shall be effective as of the date of request by the operator for an inspector of the department to witness the said test.

B. Allowables given to wells for oil produced on drill-stem tests, production test and any miscellaneous production of oil shall be in accordance with the following rule:

1. All operators are required, within five days, to file three signed copies of the records of the daily production from the well, showing the number of hours the well produced and the interval of production; as "from 8 a.m., August 5 to 3 p.m., August 8, 1941."

C. All leases are to be so equipped as to permit the determination of gas/oil ratios on individual flowing and gas-lift wells. Gas/oil ratio data on all wells shall be available to the inspector of the department at all times.

D. No flowing and/or gas-lift oil wells shall be permitted to produce with excessive gas/oil ratio, except where special orders are operative. Wells that are gas/lifted with gas from gas wells shall be prorated in the same manner as are hi-ratio naturally flowing oil wells, the G.O.R. being defined for this purpose as the total output gas less the total input gas divided by the number of barrels of oil produced. The uneconomic or unreasonable use of gas for gas-lift will not be permitted.

E.

1. Each lease shall be provided with sufficient tankage or meters to permit proper gauging of the oil produced. The tanks or meters must be identified by a sign showing the ownership of the tanks or meters and name of the lease from which the oil is being produced. In no case shall meters be the sole means of measuring oil runs from any field. There must be used at least one gauge tank to check the reading of meters. Applications for the use of oil meters in lieu of gauge tanks, shall be the subject of open hearings until rules are formulated.

2. All flowing and gas-lift oil wells are to be produced through efficient operating separators, except in the case of low-pressure headings of gas-lift wells with low-gas output.

3. All oil meters and bypass settings shall be provided with the necessary connections to permit the installation of seals and such seals shall be affixed by the operator. A record shall be kept on file and available for inspection by any agent of the department or any party at interest for a period of not less than three years, which reflects the oil meter seal number, the date and time the oil meter is sealed, the date and time the seal is broken and the reason for breaking the seal. To obviate the necessity of affixing oil meter seals, oil meters with nonresettable counters may be used.

4. When it becomes necessary to use a bypass or other flowline connection which the operator has been required to seal or which has been sealed by the department, permission to use same must be obtained from the district manager. In the event that an unforeseen emergency requires the use of bypass or flowline connections before notification to the district office, a detailed, written report, in duplicate, setting forth the occasion for such action must be given, and the bypass or other connection shall forthwith be resealed.

F. In the event that any operator considers that his well has not had a fair determination of its gas/oil ratio, or that its gas/oil ratio has changed due to natural causes or to corrective work on his well, he may make application in writing to the district manager for a retest or a special test of the gas/oil ratio of his well, and for an adjustment of the allowable of his well. If, upon retesting a well, the district manager finds that the new gas/oil ratio justifies a change in the allowable, he is authorized to make such change.

G. Changed or corrected allowable shall be effective from the date of completion of such work, but in no case shall the effective date be before the date of request by the operator to the district manager for a retest or a special test.

H. Gas wells shall not be tested by the open-flow method. The back-pressure method of determining the open flow, as outlines by the Bureau of Mines in their Monograph 7, "Back Pressure Data on Natural Gas Wells", shall be used. When, for any reasons, the back-pressure method is not feasible, an acceptable method, not entailing excessive physical waste of gas, may be used, upon recommendation of the technical staff of the department.

I. It is recognized that wells capable of producing their daily oil allowable may underproduce one day and overproduce another day during the period of an allowable schedule; however, such deficiencies as occur in this manner may be made up by excess production from the same well on the succeeding days during the period of that schedule, or such overproduction may be adjusted by underproduction on the succeeding days during the period of that schedule; provided, however, that no well shall produce in any one calendar month more than the total daily allowable per well multiplied by the total number of days in the calendar month; however, in order to provide working stocks of oil and to facilitate the production and gathering of oil including testing, bottomhole pressure survey, et cetera, the production and possession of a quantity of oil in the lease storage not exceeding three days current allowable production for the lease at the end of the month in excess of the total monthly allowables, as determined in accordance with the provisions of the production and proration order, shall not be construed to be a violation of said order.

1. The authorization of production and possession of a quantity of oil not exceeding three days current allowable production shall not be construed to be the granting of authority to any operator to offer to a market, or market, or any transporter to transport any quantity of oil in excess of the quantity specifically determined to be the total monthly allowable for each respective lease whose allowable shall have been determined by the summation of the monthly quantities determined by the multiplication of the quantity shown in the allowable schedule times the days of the month for which said allowable is effective plus or minus any allowable additions or cancellations multiplied by the days which either or both may be effective during the period covered by the schedule.

La. Admin. Code tit. 43, § XIX-119

Adopted by the Department of Conservation (August 1943), amended (January 1963), (June 1969).

AUTHORITY NOTE: Promulgated in accordance with R.S. 30:4 et seq.