New York Codes, Rules and Regulations › Title 6 - DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION › Chapter V - RESOURCE MANAGEMENT SERVICES › Subchapter B - Mineral Resources › Part 550 - Promulgation And Enforcement Of Rules And Regulations › Section 550.3 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 28, July 10, 2024
Unless the context otherwise requires, the words defined
					 below shall have the following meaning when used in the rules, regulations,
					 orders or amendments thereof of the Department of Environmental Conservation
					 relative to the natural resources of oil and gas:
(a) Administrative basis shall mean an action
				  taken by the department without first holding public hearing relative
				  thereto.
(b) Barrel shall mean 42
				  U.S. gallons.
(c) Blow-out shall
				  mean an uncontrolled, sudden or violent escape of oil or gas as from a drilling
				  well when high formation pressure is encountered.
(d) Blow-out preventer shall mean a device
				  attached immediately above the casing which can be closed and shut off the hole
				  should a blow-out occur.
(e) Bridge
				  shall mean an obstruction placed in a well at any specified depth.
(f) Brine is synonymous with salt
				  water.
(g) Casinghead gas shall
				  mean any gas or vapor, or both gas and vapor, indigenous to an oil stratum and
				  produced from such stratum with oil.
(h) Chief shall mean the chief of the Bureau
				  of Mineral Resources of the Department of Environmental Conservation.
(i) Common reservoir is synonymous with
				  pool.
(j) Completion date shall
				  mean that date when a well is first capable of producing oil or gas into tanks
				  or pipelines, or in the case of a dry hole, the date on which plugging is
				  completed.
(k) Condensate shall
				  mean liquid hydrocarbons that were originally in the gaseous phase in the
				  reservoir and liquids recovered by surface separation from natural
				  gas.
(l) Converting shall mean any
				  operation whereby the status of a well is changed from producing to input or
				  vice versa.
(m) Cubic foot of gas
				  shall mean the volume of gas contained in one cubic foot of space at a standard
				  pressure and temperature base. The standard pressure base for the application
				  of these rules and regulations shall be 14.73 pounds per square inch absolute
				  and the standard temperature base shall be 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
(n) Day shall mean a period of 24 consecutive
				  hours.
(o) Department shall mean
				  the Department of Environmental Conservation.
(p) Field shall mean the general area
				  underlaid by one or more pools.
(q)
				  Gas shall mean all natural gas, manufactured, mixed and by-product gas, and all
				  other hydrocarbons not herein defined as oil or condensate.
(r) Gas-oil ratio shall mean the ratio of the
				  volume of gas produced in standard cubic feet to each barrel of oil produced
				  concurrently during any stated period.
(s) Input well shall mean any well drilled,
				  deepened, plugged back or converted in any pool, or underground stratum or
				  horizon for the purpose of injecting, disposing or storing fluids or gaseous
				  substances.
(t) Intake well is
				  synonymous with input well.
(u)
				  Lease shall mean a tract or tracts of land which by virtue of an oil and gas
				  lease, fee or mineral ownership, a drilling, pooling or other agreement, a
				  rule, regulation, order or amendment thereof of a governmental authority, or
				  otherwise, constitutes a single tract or leasehold estate for the purpose of
				  the development or operation thereof for oil or gas or both.
(v) Mouse hole shall mean any shallow service
				  hole dug in connection with the drilling of a well for the purpose of holding
				  joints of drill pipe or other tubular goods to facilitate the connection of
				  successive joints thereof.
(w)
				  Multiple completion shall mean a mechanical arrangement permitting the
				  segregated injection and/or production into or from two or more pools or zones
				  through a single well bore.
(x)
				  Native oil and gas shall mean the total volume of oil and gas indigenous to and
				  still remaining in the storage reservoir at the time injection of extraneous
				  gas is started. This includes the volume of both commercially recoverable
				  native oil or gas, if any, and commercially unrecoverable native oil or gas
				  within the storage reservoir.
(y)
				  Offset operator as applied to any lease or lands in these rules shall mean the
				  owner or operator of a lease or lands touching, adjacent or contiguous to such
				  lease or lands.
(z) Oil shall mean
				  crude petroleum oil and all other hydrocarbons, regardless of gravity, that are
				  produced at the wellhead in liquid form by ordinary production methods and that
				  are not the result of condensation of gas.
(aa) Oil and gas shall mean oil or gas or
				  both.
(ab) Operator shall mean any
				  person who is in charge of the development of a lease or the operation of a
				  producing well.
(ac) Outside casing
				  shall mean a string of casing within which is contained another string of
				  casing extending to the surface.
(ad) Owner shall mean any person who has the
				  right to drill into and produce from a pool and to appropriate the oil or gas
				  he produces therefrom either for himself or others or for himself and
				  others.
(ae) Person shall mean and
				  include any natural person, corporation, association, partnership, receiver,
				  trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary, or other representative
				  of any kind, and includes any department, agency, or instrumentality of the
				  State or any governmental subdivision thereof. The masculine gender, in
				  referring to a person, includes the feminine and the neuter genders.
(af) Plugging and abandoning shall mean the
				  permanent abandonment of a well bore including the placing of all bridges,
				  plugs and fluids therein and the restoration of the surface in the immediate
				  vicinity to a reasonable condition comparable with the adjacent terrain.
(ag) Pollution shall mean the throwing, discharging,
					 draining, running, flowing, or pumping of any organic or inorganic materials
					 onto the surface lands or waters or into subsurface waters in such volume or
					 manner as to make these lands and waters unfit for human or animal consumption
					 or usage.
(ah) Pool shall
				  mean an underground reservoir containing a common accumulation of oil and gas
				  or both. Thus each zone of a structure which is completely separated from any
				  other zone in the same structure is a pool.
(ai) Potable fresh water shall mean any water
				  containing less than 250 parts per million of sodium chloride or 1,000 parts
				  per million of total dissolved solids.
(aj) Potential shall mean the actual or
				  computed volume of oil or gas that a well can produce in a day as determined by
				  a test made in conformity with methods acceptable to the department.
(ak) Pressure maintenance shall mean the
				  injection of gas, water or other fluids into oil or gas reservoirs to maintain
				  pressure or retard pressure decline in the reservoir for the purpose of
				  increasing the recovery of oil or other hydrocarbons therefrom.
(al) Producer shall mean the owner of a well
				  or wells capable of producing oil or gas or both.
(am) Producing well shall mean any well
				  capable of the production of oil or gas or both.
(an) Product shall mean any commodity made
				  from oil or gas, and includes refined oil, crude tops, topped crude, processed
				  crude, processed crude petroleum, residue from crude petroleum, cracking stock,
				  uncracked fuel oil, fuel oil, treated crude oil, residuum, gas oil, casinghead
				  gasoline, natural-gas gasoline, kerosene, benzine, wash oil, waste oil, blended
				  gasoline, lubricating oils, blends or mixtures of oil with one or more liquid
				  products or by-products derived from oil or gas, and blends or mixtures of two
				  or more liquid products or by-products derived from oil, or gas, whether
				  enumerated herein or not.
(ao)
				  Protect correlative rights shall mean that the action or regulation by the
				  department should afford a reasonable opportunity to each person entitled
				  thereto to recover or receive the oil or gas beneath his tract or tracts or the
				  equivalent thereof without being required to drill unnecessary wells or to
				  incur other unnecessary expense to recover or receive such oil or gas or its
				  equivalent.
(ap) Proved oil or gas
				  land shall mean that area which has been shown by development or geological
				  information to be such that additional wells drilled thereon are reasonably
				  certain to be commercially productive of oil or gas, or both.
(aq) Purchaser shall mean any person who
				  directly or indirectly purchases or takes production for his account.
(ar) Rat hole shall mean any shallow service
				  hole dug in connection with the drilling of a well to hold the kelly, drive
				  stem, grief stem, bit, bailer or other related drilling equipment.
(as) Rules and regulations shall mean the
				  body of rules, regulations, orders and amendments thereof promulgated by the
				  department, either on an administrative basis or after public hearing, in
				  carrying out its function of administering to and regulating activities
				  relative to the natural resources of oil and gas.
(at) Salt water shall mean any water containing more than
					 250 parts per million of sodium chloride or 1,000 parts per million of total
					 dissolved solids.
(au)
				  Surface casing shall mean casing extending from the surface through the potable
				  fresh water zone.
(av) Temporary
				  abandonment shall mean the discontinuation of operations on or the closing in
				  of a well not produced on a commercial basis without conducting plugging and
				  abandoning operations.
(aw) Unit
				  shall mean two or more leases which have been combined in such a manner that
				  the combined leases may be regarded as a common lease.
(ax) Waste shall mean:
(1) physical waste, as that term is generally
				  understood in the oil and gas industry;
(2) the inefficient, excessive, or improper
				  use of, or the unnecessary dissipation of reservoir energy;
(3) the locating, spacing, drilling,
				  equipping, operating, or producing of any oil or gas well or wells in a manner
				  which causes, or tends to cause, reduction in the quantity of oil or gas
				  ultimately recoverable from a pool under prudent and proper operations, or
				  which causes or tends to cause unnecessary or excessive surface loss or
				  destruction of oil or gas;
(4) the
				  inefficient storing of oil or gas;
(5) the flaring of gas produced from an oil
				  or condensate well after the department has found that the utilization thereof,
				  on terms that are just and reasonable is, or will be within a reasonable time,
				  economically feasible.