Virginia Administrative Code › Title 4 - CONSERVATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES › Agency 25 - DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY › Chapter 101 - REGULATIONS GOVERNING VERTICAL VENTILATION HOLES AND MINING NEAR GAS AND OIL WELLS › Section 4VAC25-101-10 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 40, No. 24, July 15, 2024
The following words and terms when used in this chapter shall
				  have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates
				  otherwise:
"Accurate map or plat" means a map or plat drawn of a scale
				  of between one inch equals 100 feet (1:1,200) and one inch equals 400 feet
				  (1:4,800) with the scale so stated on the map or plat and certified by a
				  licensed professional engineer or licensed land surveyor.
"Approved" means a device, apparatus, equipment, condition,
				  method, course or practice approved in writing by the chief. Approvals by
				  federal agencies such as the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), or
				  the Office of Surface Mining (OSM), shall also be considered "approved" for the
				  purposes of this chapter.
"Bridge plug" means an obstruction intentionally placed in a
				  vertical ventilation hole at a specified depth.
"Building" means a structure regularly occupied in whole or
				  in part as a habitation for human beings, or where people are accustomed to
				  live, work, or assemble.
"Casing" means all pipe set in wells or vertical ventilation
				  holes except conductor pipe and tubing.
"Cement" means hydraulic cement properly mixed with
				  water.
"Chief" means the Chief of the Division of Mines of the
				  Department of Energy, or his authorized agent.
"Coalbed methane gas" means occluded natural gas produced
				  from coalbeds and rock strata associated therewith.
"Coalbed methane gas well" means a well capable of producing
				  coalbed methane gas.
"Coal-protection string" means a casing designed to protect a
				  coal seam by excluding all fluids and gas or gas pressure from the seam, except
				  such as may be found in the coal seam itself.
"Coal seam" means any stratum of coal 20 inches or more in
				  thickness, unless a stratum of less thickness is being commercially worked, or
				  can in the judgment of the department foreseeably be commercially worked and
				  will require protection if wells are drilled through it.
"Directional survey" means a well survey that measures the
				  degree of deviation of a hole from true vertical and direction of points in the
				  hole from the vertical.
"Director" means the Director of the Department of Energy or
				  his authorized agent.
"Division" means the Division of Mines of the Department of
				  Energy.
"Form prescribed by the chief" means a form issued by the
				  division, or an equivalent facsimile, for use in meeting the requirements of
				  the Code of Virginia or this chapter.
"Gas" or "natural gas" means all natural gas whether
				  hydrocarbon or nonhydrocarbon or any combination or mixture thereof, including
				  hydrocarbons, hydrogen sulfide, helium, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen,
				  casing head gas, and all other fluids not defined as oil.
"Gas well operator" means any person who has been designated
				  to operate or does operate a gas well.
"Gas and Oil Inspector" means the Director of the Division of
				  Gas and Oil of the Department of Energy.
"Gas well" means any well that produces or appears capable of
				  producing a ratio of 6,000 cubic feet (6 Mcf) of gas or more to each barrel of
				  oil, on the basis of a gas-oil ratio test.
"Gob well" means a coalbed methane gas well which is capable
				  of producing coalbed methane gas from the de-stressed zone associated with any
				  full-seam extraction of coal that extends above and below the mined-out coal
				  seam.
"Groundwater" means all water under the ground, wholly or
				  partially within or bordering the Commonwealth or within its jurisdiction,
				  which has the potential for being used for domestic, industrial, commercial or
				  agricultural use or otherwise affects the public safety.
"Highway" means any public street, public alley, or public
				  road.
"Inclination survey" means a survey taken inside a vertical
				  ventilation hole that measures the degree of deviation of the point of the
				  survey from the vertical.
"Intermediate string" means a string of casing that prevents
				  caving, shuts off connate water in strata below the water-protection string,
				  and protects strata from exposure to lower zone pressures.
"Log" means the written record progressively describing all
				  strata, water, or gas encountered in drilling, depth and thickness of each bed
				  or seam of coal drilled through, volume of gas, pressures, rate of fill-up,
				  fresh and salt water-bearing horizons and depths, cavings strata, casing
				  records and such other information as is usually recorded in the normal
				  procedure of drilling. The term shall also include electrical survey records or
				  electrical survey logs.
"Mcf" means, when used with reference to natural gas, 1,000
				  cubic feet of gas at a pressure base of 14.73 pounds per square inch gauge and
				  a temperature base of 60°F.
"Minable coal seam" means a coal seam being mined
				  commercially, or that, in the judgment of the chief, can reasonably be expected
				  to be mined, and which, when mined, will require protection if holes are
				  drilled through it.
"Mining" means the activity of producing coal from any coal
				  mine.
"Mud" means a mixture of materials which creates a weighted
				  fluid to be circulated downhole during over-balance drilling operations for the
				  purpose of lubricating and cooling the bit, removing cuttings, and controlling
				  formation fluids, oil, gas or gas pressure.
"Owner" means the person or persons listed as owner of record
				  by the Clerk of the Circuit Court of the county in which the property is
				  located.
"Pending" means an application for a vertical ventilation
				  hole or gas well permit that has been submitted to the department, but where
				  the decision to issue or refuse to issue the permit has not been made.
"Permanent point" means an established physical point of
				  reference on the land surface, based on the applicant's coordinate system, used
				  for a map or plat submitted with a permit application.
"Permitted" means a vertical ventilation hole or gas well
				  that has been approved by the department.
"Person" means individual, corporation, partnership,
				  association, company, business, trust, joint venture, unit of government, or
				  other legal entity.
"Pillar" means a solid block of coal or ore or other material
				  left unmined to support the overlying strata in a mine.
"Pipeline" means any pipe buried or on the surface used or to
				  be used to transport gas.
"Plug" means the sealing of, or a device or material used for
				  the sealing of, a vertical ventilation hole or casing to prevent the migration
				  of formation fluids or gas from one stratum to another.
"Railroad" means any steam, electric or other powered
				  transportation system operating on a track which carries passengers for hire,
				  or over which loaded or empty equipment is transported.
"State plane coordinate system" means the Virginia Coordinate
				  System of 1927 or the Virginia Coordinate System of 1983 as defined in §
				  1-600 of the Code of Virginia.
"String of pipe" or "string" means the total footage of pipe
				  of uniform size set in a vertical ventilation hole. The term embraces conductor
				  pipe, casing, and tubing. When the casing consists of segments of different
				  size, each segment constitutes a separate string. A string may serve more than
				  one purpose.
"Tubing" means the small diameter string set after the
				  vertical ventilation hole has been drilled from the surface to the total depth
				  and through which a substance is produced or injected.
"Vertical ventilation hole" means any hole drilled from the
				  surface to the coal seam used primarily for the safety purpose of removing gas
				  from the underlying coal seam and the adjacent strata, thus, removing the gas
				  that would normally be in the mine ventilation system.
"Water-protection string" means a string of casing designed
				  to protect groundwater-bearing strata.
"Well" means any shaft or hole sunk, drilled, bored or dug
				  into the earth or into underground strata for the extraction, injection or
				  placement of any gaseous or liquid substance, or any shaft or hole sunk or used
				  in conjunction with such extraction, injection or placement. The term shall not
				  include any shaft or hole sunk, drilled, bored or dug into the earth for the
				  sole purpose of pumping or extracting therefrom potable, fresh or usable water
				  for household, domestic, industrial, agricultural, or public use and shall not
				  include water boreholes, vertical ventilation holes where methane is vented or
				  flared rather than produced and saved, subsurface boreholes drilled from the
				  mine face of an underground coal mine, any other boreholes necessary or
				  convenient for the extraction of coal or drilled pursuant to a uranium
				  exploratory program carried out pursuant to the laws of this Commonwealth, or
				  any coal or non-fuel mineral corehole or borehole for the purpose of
				  exploration.
Statutory Authority: § 45.2-103 of the Code of
					 Virginia.