Missouri Code of State Regulations › Title 10 - DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES › Division 50 - Oil and Gas Council › Chapter 2 - Oil and Gas Drilling and Production › Section 10 CSR 50-2.050 - Samples, Logs, and Completion Reports

Current through Register Vol. 49, No. 14, July 15, 2024
PURPOSE: The objective of exploration is to locate
				  reserves of oil and gas. To achieve this objective, the geologic history and
				  the relationships of petroleum generation, migration, and accumulation must be
				  understood. Analyses of well cuttings and cores provide much information on the
				  composition, age, and original environment of deposition of the sediments and
				  on fluid content and characteristics. Logging tools lowered into boreholes
				  provide information concerning the electrical, acoustical, and radioactive
				  properties of rock-fluid systems throughout drilled intervals. This rule
				  provides for filing of these data with the state geologist for the future use
				  of industry and government scientists and is of paramount importance in
				  achieving new energy resources and for protection of the
				  environment.
(1) Each
				operator drilling or recompleting wells for the purpose of the exploration or
				production of oil or gas, excluding seismic shot holes, shall preserve and
				retain samples or drill cuttings, cores, and all other information as required
				under sections (2) and (3).
(2)
				Samples.
(A) The operator shall be given
				notice that samples or cores are required by a notice appended to or on a copy
				of the permit to drill, deepen, plug-back, or recomplete returned to the
				operator by the state geologist. All samples or drill cuttings saved in
				drilling or recompletion operations, and any cores taken, shall be retained by
				the operator for one hundred eighty (180) days after the spud date of the
				well.
(B) Sample cuttings shall be taken at five foot (5')
				intervals from the surface to total depth in all wells drilled under these
				regulations.
(C) During the drilling, or immediately following the
				completion, of any well drilled as provided in this rule, the operator shall
				advise the state geologist of all intervals that are to be cored, or have been
				cored, and, if requested, shall forward the core to the state geologist at the
				operator's expense. In the event that it is necessary for the operator to
				utilize all or any portion of the core to the extent that sufficiently large
				and representative samples are not available for the state, the operator shall
				provide the state geologist with the results of identification or testing
				procedures.
(D) Each sample shall
				be identified as to well name, location, and depth of sample. Upon request of
				the state geologist, all cores or core longitudinal sections not required by
				the operator for well evaluation purposes shall be placed in stratigraphic
				sequence in adequate boxes, labeled with the well name, location, and footage,
				and delivered to the state geologist. All samples shall be shipped at the
				operator's expense to the office of the state geologist and shall be for study
				and use.
(E) Delivery of the
				processed samples or cores shall be made within one hundred twenty (120) days
				of the spud date or date of commencement of recompletion of the well.
(F) If retention of the core is requested by
				the operator, designated state geologist staff members shall be provided
				unrestricted access to the core at the operator's facility during the
				operator's normal business hours. This access shall be subject to any
				confidentiality requests made under
				10 CSR
				50-1.020.
(G) Operators in physical possession of cores
				requested by the state geologist shall not dispose of the cores without
				permission of the state geologist.
(H) If the state geologist requests samples
				from portions of the hole that typically are not saved in drilling operations,
				the operator shall provide these samples.
(I) The state geologist may waive the
				requirements of sampling if the state geologist determines additional geologic
				information is not required. The state geologist will advise the operator on
				the returned copy of the approved permit to drill, deepen, plug-back, or
				recomplete when samples will not be required.