Hawaii Administrative Rules › Title 13 - DEPARTMENT OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES › Subtitle 7 - WATER RESOURCES › Chapter 183 - RULES ON LEASING AND DRILLING OF GEOTHERMAL RESOURCES › Subchapter 8 - DRILLING; WELLS GENERALLY › Section 13-183-71 - Casing and cementing requirements

Current through June, 2024
(a) All wells shall
				  be cased in a manner to protect and prevent or to minimize damage to the
				  environment, ground water resources, geothermal resources, life, health, and
				  property. The permanent well head completion equipment and all casing strings
				  reaching the surface shall provide for adequate well pressure control,
				  operational safety, and protection of all natural resources. Department
				  specifications for casing strings shall be determined on a well-to-well basis.
				  All casing strings reaching the surface shall provide adequate anchorage for
				  blowout-prevention equipment, hole pressure control and protection for all
				  natural resources. The casing requirements described below are general and
				  should be used as guidelines in submitting proposed casing programs required to
				  be filed with applications for permit.
(b) Conductor pipe shall be installed to a
				  depth of a minimum of fifty feet and a maximum of one hundred fifty feet. In
				  special cases the chairperson may allow conductor pipe to be run and cemented
				  at deeper depths. The annular space between the hole and pipe shall be cemented
				  solid to the surface.
(c) Surface
				  casing shall be installed to provide for control of formation fluids, for
				  protection of ground water resources, and for anchorage of blowout-prevention
				  equipment. All surface casing shall be cemented solid to the surface.
(d) Surface casing shall be set to a minimum
				  depth of ten percent of the proposed total depth of the well or five hundred
				  feet, whichever is greater. If usable basal ground water is present or
				  reasonably suspected to exist in the area, the depth of the surface casing
				  shall be approved by the chairperson. If subsurface geological, hydrological,
				  or geothermal conditions are to be or within the vicinity of the area to be
				  drilled, then these conditions shall be used in determining and approving the
				  depth of surface casing. A second string of surface casing may be required if
				  the first string has not been cemented through a sufficient series of low
				  permeability, competent rock formations or a rapidly increasing thermal
				  gradient or rapidly increasing formation pressures are encountered.
(e) Intermediate casing shall be required for
				  protection against anomalous pressure zones, cave-ins, washouts, abnormal
				  temperature zones, uncontrollable lost circulation zones or other drilling
				  hazards. Intermediate casing strings shall be cemented solid to the
				  surface.
(f) Production casing may
				  be set above or through the producing or injection zone and cemented above the
				  zones. Sufficient cement shall be used to exclude overlying formation fluids
				  from the zone, to segregate zones and to prevent movement of fluids behind the
				  casing into zones that contain ground water. Production casing shall either be
				  cemented solid to the surface or lapped into intermediate casing, if installed.
				  If the production casing is lapped into an intermediate string, the casing
				  overlap shall be at least fifty feet, the lap shall be cemented solid and the
				  lap shall be pressure tested to ensure the integrity of the lap.
In order to reduce casing corrosion, production casing
					 used to produce corrosive brine reservoirs shall be of the same nominal inside
					 diameter from the shoe of the casing to the ground surface unless waived by the
					 chairperson.
(g) All cement
				  used in cementing the various types of casing required herein shall contain a
				  high temperature resistant admix, unless this cement requirement is waived by
				  the chairperson due to the particular circumstances existing in the well or the
				  area.