Code of Maryland Regulations › Title 26 - DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT › Part 4 - SUBTITLES 19-30 › Subtitle 19 - OIL AND GAS RESOURCES › Chapter 26.19.01 - Oil and Gas Exploration and Production › Section 26.19.01.01 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 51, No. 14, July 12, 2024
A. In this
				  subtitle, the following terms have the meanings indicated.
B. Terms Defined.
(1) "Angular deviation and directional
				  survey" means a well survey that indicates, at frequent intervals, the amount
				  and azimuth that the hole has departed from vertical.
(2) "Annular space" means the area between
				  the outer casing and the wall of a borehole.
(3) "Barrel" means a unit of measure for
				  crude oil equal to 42 U.S. gallons.
(4) "Blowout" means an uncontrolled flow of
				  gas, oil, or other well fluids into the atmosphere. This occurs when formation
				  pressure exceeds the pressure applied to it by the column of drilling
				  fluid.
(5) "Blowout prevention
				  equipment" means devices attached to the top of the well casing that can be
				  closed and shut off to control pressure at the wellhead.
(6) "Bridge plug" means an expandable device
				  used inside the casing of a well to isolate certain zones or to plug back to a
				  shallower depth.
(7) "Chesapeake
				  Bay Critical Area" means those areas defined and regulated under Natural
				  Resources Article, §
											8-1807, Annotated
				  Code of Maryland.
(8) "Circulating
				  medium" means any type of liquid, gas, or slurry used as an agent to remove
				  drill cuttings and to cool the bit.
(9) "Commingle production" means to mix
				  hydrocarbons from two or more pay zones in the same well.
(10) "Conductor pipe" means a pipe used near
				  the surface to prevent unconsolidated material from caving or sloughing into
				  the hole.
(11) "Coning" means the
				  cone-shaped invasion of water underlying oil or gas in a reservoir or invasion
				  of gas overlying oil in a reservoir as the oil or gas is withdrawn from a
				  well.
(12) "Cuttings" means the
				  fragments of rocks produced by the drill bit during the drilling process and
				  brought to the surface in the drilling liquid.
(13) "Department" means the Department of the
				  Environment.
(14) "Directional
				  drilling" means aiming wells at horizontally displaced bottom-hole
				  targets.
(15) Drilling Liquid.
(a) "Drilling liquid" means a fluid, such as
				  mud or water, circulated in a borehole to remove the drill cuttings from the
				  hole and to cool the drill bit.
(b)
				  "Drilling liquid", for the purpose of this chapter, does not include air or
				  gas.
(16) "Dry hole"
				  means a well that encountered no oil or gas of commercial
				  significance.
(17) "Explosives"
				  means any chemical compound, mixture, or device, the primary purpose of which
				  is to function by explosion through substantially instantaneous release of gas
				  and heat, unless the compound, mixture, or device is otherwise specifically
				  classified by the Interstate Commerce Commission or other federal
				  agencies.
(18) "Fill-up" means the
				  level to which liquid rises in a well being drilled with air when a fresh or
				  salt water zone is encountered.
(19) "Free liquid fraction" means fresh water
				  brought to the surface while drilling through strata containing fresh ground
				  water, or fresh water brought to the well site and used in drilling. It may
				  contain drill cuttings, but is not polluted or contaminated by additives, salt
				  water, or oil.
(20) "Gas" means all
				  natural gas and other fluid hydrocarbons, not defined as oil, that are produced
				  from a natural reservoir.
(21)
				  "Impermeable" means that the rate of water flow through a material is less than
				  0.009 centimeter per day.
(22)
				  "Injection well" means a well used for pumping fluids into a subsurface
				  formation.
(23) "Killing the well"
				  means overcoming downhole pressure, in a well being drilled, through the use of
				  drilling liquid or water.
(24)
				  "Log" means a continuous record as a function of depth, usually graphic and
				  plotted to scale on a narrow paper strip, of observations made on the rocks and
				  fluids of the geologic section exposed in a well bore.
(25) "Lost hole" means a well in which the
				  target could not be reached because of geological or mechanical
				  problems.
(26) "Mechanical plug"
				  means an expandable device placed in a well to act as a water-tight, oil-tight,
				  and gas-tight seal.
(27) "Mineral
				  interest owner" means any person who owns a working interest or a royalty
				  interest in the oil or gas, or both, contained in, or produced from, a tract of
				  land.
(28) "Multiple zone
				  completion" means the completion of a well in two or more separate producing
				  formations with no commingling of the produced oil or gas.
(29) "Noncementing material" means a mixture
				  of very fine to coarse-grained nonbonding materials, including unwashed crushed
				  stone, drill cuttings, earthen mud, or other equivalent material approved by
				  the Department.
(30) "Nonporous
				  material" means bentonitic mud, cement, or equivalent materials approved by the
				  Department which will retard the movement of fluids.
(31) "Nontidal wetland" means those areas
				  defined and regulated under Environment Article, Title 5, Subtitle 9, Annotated
				  Code of Maryland, or COMAR
				  27.01.01.01 a B(46).
(32) "Oil" means crude petroleum oil and
				  other hydrocarbons, regardless of specific gravity, that are produced at the
				  wellhead in liquid form, except liquid hydrocarbons known as distillate or
				  condensate recovered or extracted from gas.
(33) "Open-flow test" means a measurement of
				  the rate of flow of a gas well when flowing into the air, unrestricted by any
				  pressure other than that of the atmosphere, and usually measured in thousands
				  of cubic feet (Mcf) per day.
(34)
				  "Operator" means a person who develops, manages, or produces oil or
				  gas.
(35) "Perforating" means to
				  make holes through the casing opposite the producing zone to allow the oil or
				  gas to flow into the well.
(36)
				  "Person" means the federal government, the State, a county, municipal
				  corporation, or other political subdivision of the State, or their units, or an
				  individual, receiver, trustee, guardian, executor, administrator, fiduciary, or
				  representative of any kind, or a partnership, firm, association, public or
				  private corporation, or any other entity.
(37) "Pit" means an impoundment for the
				  retention of water, drilling liquid, or drill cuttings.
(38) "Plug" means an expandable device or
				  cement placed in a well to prevent the movement of liquids and gas.
(39) "Pool" means an underground reservoir
				  containing a common accumulation of oil or gas, or both.
(40) "Pooled unit" means an area within which
				  permittees of different tracts in the area have voluntarily agreed to
				  participate in a well drilled within the unit.
(41) "Pressure maintenance" means the
				  injection of liquid or gas into an oil or gas reservoir to increase or maintain
				  reservoir pressure in order to recover additional quantities of
				  hydrocarbons.
(42) "Producing zone"
				  means the stratum, bed, or formation from which oil or gas enters the
				  well.
(43) "Recomplete a well"
				  means to seal off one producing zone, and perforate a new producing
				  zone.
(44) "Re-enter" means to
				  drill out the plugs of an abandoned well in a new effort to establish oil or
				  gas production, or use the well for another purpose.
(45) "Reservoir" means a natural underground
				  oil or gas bearing formation.
(46)
				  "Rework" means to perform remedial measures in a well in order to restore oil
				  or gas production that has declined substantially or stopped
				  completely.
(47) "Royalty interest"
				  means that portion of the mineral interest that is the landowner's
				  share.
(48) "Seismic operations"
				  means the controlled application of vibratory energy from any source to
				  determine if favorable conditions exist for the subsurface entrapment of oil or
				  gas.
(49) "Seismic section" means a
				  graphic, near-vertical display of waveform data processed by a computer program
				  to facilitate interpretation of subsurface conditions.
(50) "Seismic survey" means a planned network
				  or program of seismic operations conducted by one person, one time, under one
				  permit.
(51) "Shotholes" means
				  drilled holes which are subsequently loaded with explosives whose detonation
				  generates seismic waves during a seismic survey.
(52) "Shut-in pressure" means the pressure in
				  the well measured at the wellhead in a specified period of time after the
				  valves are closed.
(53) "Stimulate
				  a zone" means to use techniques such as hydraulic fracturing and acidizing in
				  order to increase oil or gas production from a formation.
(54) "Surface casing" means the first casing
				  set inside the conductor pipe, which seals off any shallow aquifers and also
				  serves as a foundation for all subsequent drilling activity.
(55) "Tidal waters" means all waters of the
				  State subject to tidal influence with the landward boundary being coterminous
				  with the wetlands boundary maps adopted under Environment Article, §
											16-301, Annotated Code of
				  Maryland.
(56) "Wellhead protection
				  area" means surface and subsurface area surrounding a water well or well field,
				  supplying a public water system, through which contaminants are reasonably
				  likely to move toward and reach the water well or well field.
(57) "Wildcat well" means an exploratory well
				  drilled for oil or gas on a geologic feature not yet proven to be productive,
				  or in an unproven territory, or to a zone that has never produced or is not
				  known to be productive in the general area.