New Mexico Administrative Code › Title 19 - NATURAL RESOURCES AND WILDLIFE › Chapter 15 - OIL AND GAS › Part 16 - DRILLING AND PRODUCTION › Section 19.15.16.10 - CASING AND TUBING REQUIREMENTS

Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 13, July 16, 2024
A.
				The operator shall equip a well drilled for oil or gas with surface and
				intermediate casing strings and cement as may be necessary to effectively seal
				off and isolate all water-, oil- and gas-bearing strata and other strata
				encountered in the well down to the casing point. In addition, the operator
				shall equip a well completed for oil or gas production with a string of
				properly cemented production casing at sufficient depth to ensure protection of
				oil- and gas-bearing strata encountered in the well, including the strata to be
				produced.
B. The operator shall use
				sufficient cement on surface casing to fill the annular space behind the casing
				to the top of the hole, provided that authorized division field personnel may
				allow exceptions to this requirement when known conditions in a given area
				render compliance impracticable.
C.
				Cementing shall be by pump and plug method unless the division expressly
				authorizes some other method.
D.
				Cementing shall be with conventional-type hard-setting cements to which the
				operator has added additives (lighteners, densifiers, extenders, accelerators,
				retarders, etc.) to suit conditions in the well.
E. Authorized division field personnel may,
				when conditions warrant, allow exceptions to Subsection D of 19.15.16.10 NMAC
				and permit the operator to use oil-base casing packing material in lieu of
				hard-setting cements on intermediate and production casing strings; provided
				that when the operator uses such materials on the intermediate casing string,
				the operator places conventional-type hard-setting cements throughout all oil-
				and gas-bearing zones and throughout at least the lowermost 300 feet of the
				intermediate casing string. When the operator uses such materials on the
				production casing string, the operator shall place conventional-type
				hard-setting cements throughout all oil- and gas-bearing zones that shall
				extend upward a minimum of 500 feet above the uppermost perforation or, in the
				case of an open-hole completion, 500 feet above the production casing
				shoe.
F. The operator shall test
				casing strings and prove satisfactory as provided in Subsection I of
				19.15.16.10 NMAC.
G. After
				cementing, but before commencing tests Subsection I of 19.15.16.10 NMAC
				requires, all casing strings shall stand cemented in accordance with one of the
				options in Paragraphs (1) and (2) of Subsection G of 19.15.16.10 NMAC.
				Regardless of which option the operator chooses, the casing shall remain
				stationary and under pressure for at least eight hours after the operator
				places the cement. Casing shall be under pressure if the operator uses some
				acceptable means of holding pressure or if the operator employs one or more
				float valves to hold the cement in place. The operator shall either
(1) allow casing strings to stand cemented a
				minimum of 18 hours prior to commencing tests; an operator using this option
				shall report on form C-103 the actual time the cement was in place before the
				operator initiated tests; or
(2) in
				the counties of San Juan, Rio Arriba, McKinley, Sandoval, Lea, Eddy, Chaves and
				Roosevelt only, allow casing strings to stand cemented until the cement reaches
				a compressive strength of at least 500 psi in the "zone of interest" before
				commencing tests; provided however, that the operator shall not commence tests
				until the cement is in place for at least eight hours.
(a) The "zone of interest" for surface and
				intermediate casing strings is the bottom 20 percent of the casing string, but
				is no more than 1000 feet nor less than 300 feet of the bottom-part of the
				casing unless the casing is set at less than 300 feet. The "zone of interest"
				for production casing strings includes the interval or intervals where
				immediate completion is contemplated.
(b) To determine that a minimum compressive
				strength of 500 psi has been attained, the operator shall use the typical
				performance data for the particular cement mix used in the well, at the minimum
				temperature indicated for the zone of interest by Figure 107-A, Temperature
				Gradient Curves. Typical performance data used shall be that data the cement
				manufacturer or a competent materials testing agency furnishes, as determined
				in accordance with the latest edition of API publication Recommended Practice
				for Testing Well Cements, RP 10B-2.
(See Temperature Gradient - Page 17A)