New Mexico Administrative Code
Title 19 - NATURAL RESOURCES AND WILDLIFE
Chapter 15 - OIL AND GAS
Part 2 - GENERAL PROVISIONS FOR OIL AND GAS OPERATIONS
Section 19.15.2.7 - DEFINITIONS
Universal Citation: 19 NM Admin Code 19.15.2.7
Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 18, September 24, 2024
These definitions apply to 19.15.2 NMAC through 19.15.39 NMAC.
A. Definitions beginning with the letter "A".
(1)
"Abate" means to investigate, contain, remove or mitigate water
pollution.
(2)
"Abatement" means the investigation, containment, removal or other
mitigation of water pollution.
(3)
"Abatement plan" means a description of operational, monitoring,
contingency and closure requirements and conditions for water pollution's
prevention, investigation and abatement.
(4)
"Act" or "Oil and Gas Act"
means Chapter 70, Article 2 NMSA 1978, as it may be modified or
amended.
(5)
"Adjoining
spacing units" mean those existing or prospective spacing units in the
same pool that are touching at a point or line on the subject spacing
unit.
(6)
"Adjusted
allowable" means the allowable production a well or proration unit
receives after all adjustments are made.
(7)
"AFE" means authorization
for expenditure.
(8)
"Affected persons" means the following persons owning interests in
a spacing unit or other identified tract:
(a)
the operator, as shown in division records, of a well on the tract, or, if the
tract is included in a division-approved or federal unit, the designated unit
operator;
(b) in the absence of an
operator, or with respect to an application wherein the operator of the spacing
unit or identified tract is the applicant, each working interest owner whose
interest is evidenced by a written conveyance document either of record or
known to the applicant as of the date the applicant files the
application;
(c) as to any tract or
interest therein that is not subject to an existing oil and gas lease, each
mineral interest owner whose interest is evidenced by a written conveyance
document either of record or known to the applicant as of the date the
applicant filed the application; and
(d) if the United States or state of New
Mexico owns the mineral estate in the spacing unit or identified tract or any
part thereof, the BLM or state land office, as applicable; or
(e) if the mineral estate in the spacing unit
or identified tract or any part thereof is tribal land, the BLM, the United
States department of the interior, bureau of Indian affairs, and the relevant
tribe.
(9)
"Allocated pool" means a pool in which the total oil or gas
production is restricted and is allocated to various wells in the pool in
accordance with proration schedules.
(10)
"Allowable production"
means that number of barrels of oil or cubic feet of gas the division
authorizes to be produced from an allocated pool.
(11)
"APD" means application for
permit to drill.
(12)
"API" means the American petroleum institute.
(13)
"Approved temporary
abandonment" means the status of a well that is inactive, has been
approved in accordance with
19.15.25.13
NMAC and complies with
19.15.25.12
NMAC through
19.15.25.14
NMAC.
(14)
"Aquifer"
means a geological formation, group of formations or a part of a formation that
can yield a significant amount of water to a well or spring.
(15)
"ASTM" means ASTM
International - an international standards developing organization that
develops and publishes voluntary technical standards for a wide range of
materials, products, systems and services.
B. Definitions beginning with the letter "B".
(1)
"Back
allowable" means the authorization for production of an underproduction
resulting from pipeline proration.
(2)
"Background" means, for
purposes of ground water abatement plans only, the amount of ground water
contaminants naturally occurring from undisturbed geologic sources or water
contaminants occurring from a source other than the responsible person's
facility. This definition does not prevent the director from requiring
abatement of commingled plumes of pollution, does not prevent responsible
persons from seeking contribution or other legal or equitable relief from other
persons and does not preclude the director from exercising enforcement
authority under any applicable statute, rule or common law.
(3)
"Barrel" means 42 United
States gallons measured at 60 degrees fahrenheit and atmospheric pressure at
the sea level.
(4)
"Barrel of
oil" means 42 United States gallons of oil, after deductions for the
full amount of basic sediment, water and other impurities present, ascertained
by centrifugal or other recognized and customary test.
(5)
"Below-grade tank" means a
vessel, excluding sumps and pressurized pipeline drip traps, where a portion of
the tank's sidewalls is below the surrounding ground surface's elevation.
Below-grade tank does not include an above ground storage tank that is located
above or at the surrounding ground surface's elevation and is surrounded by
berms.
(6)
"Berm"
means an embankment or ridge constructed to prevent the movement of liquids,
sludge, solids or other materials.
(7)
"Biopile", also known as
biocell, bioheap, biomound or compost pile, means a pile of contaminated soils
used to reduce concentrations of petroleum constituents in excavated soils
through biodegradation. This technology involves heaping contaminated soils
into piles or "cells" and stimulating aerobic microbial activity within the
soils through the aeration or addition of minerals, nutrients and
moisture.
(8)
"BLM"
means the United States department of the interior, bureau of land
management.
(9)
"Bottom hole
pressure" means the gauge pressure in psi under conditions existing at
or near the producing horizon.
(10)
"Bradenhead gas well" means a well producing gas through wellhead
connections from a gas reservoir that has been successfully cased off from an
underlying oil or gas reservoir.
(11)
"BS&W" means basic
sediments and water.
(12)
"BTEX" means benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene.
C. Definitions beginning with the letter "C".
(1)
"Carbon
dioxide gas" means noncombustible gas composed chiefly of carbon dioxide
occurring naturally in underground rocks.
(2)
"Casinghead gas" means a gas
or vapor or both gas and vapor indigenous to and produced from a pool the
division classifies as an oil pool. This also includes gas-cap gas produced
from such an oil pool.
(3)
"Certified mail" or "certified mail, return receipt requested"
means United States Postal Service Certified Mail or equivalent service that
provides tracking and signature receipt, including Federal Express, United
Parcel Service, or similar courier services.
(4)
"Cm/sec" means centimeters
per second.
(5)
"CPD"
means central point delivery.
(6)
"Combination multiple completion" means a multiple completion in
which two or more common sources of supply are produced through a combination
of two or more conventional diameter casing strings cemented in a common well
bore, or a combination of small diameter and conventional diameter casing
strings cemented in a common well bore, the conventional diameter strings of
which might or might not be a conventional multiple completion.
(7)
"Commission" means the oil
conservation commission.
(8)
"Commission clerk" means the division employee the director
designates to provide staff support to the commission and accept filings in
rulemaking or adjudicatory cases before the commission.
(9)
"Common purchaser for gas"
means a person now or hereafter engaged in purchasing from one or more
producers gas produced from gas wells within each common source of supply from
which it purchases.
(10)
"Common purchaser for oil" means every person now engaged or
hereafter engaging in the business of purchasing oil to be transported through
pipelines.
(11)
"Common
source of supply". See pool.
(12)
"Condensate" means the
liquid recovered at the surface that results from condensation due to reduced
pressure or temperature of petroleum hydrocarbons existing in a gaseous phase
in the reservoir.
(13)
"Contiguous" means acreage joined by more than one common point,
that is, the common boundary is at least one side of a governmental
quarter-quarter section.
(14)
"Conventional completion" means a well completion in which the
production string of casing has an outside diameter exceeding 2.875
inches.
(15)
"Conventional
multiple completion" means a completion in which two or more common
sources of supply are produced through one or more strings of tubing installed
within a single casing string, with the production from each common source of
supply completely segregated by means of packers.
(16)
"Correlative rights" means
the opportunity afforded, as far as it is practicable to do so, to the owner of
each property in a pool to produce without waste the owner's just and equitable
share of the oil or gas in the pool, being an amount, so far as can be
practically determined, and so far as can be practicably obtained without
waste, substantially in the proportion that the quantity of recoverable oil or
gas under the property bears to the total recoverable oil or gas in the pool,
and for the purpose to use the owner's just and equitable share of the
reservoir energy.
(17)
"Cubic
feet of gas or cubic foot of gas" means that volume of gas contained in
one cubic foot of space and computed at a base pressure of 10 ounces per square
inch above the average barometric pressure of 14.4 psi (15.025 psi absolute),
at a standard base temperature of 60 degrees fahrenheit.
D. Definitions beginning with the letter "D".
(1)
"Deep
pool" means a common source of supply that is situated 5000 feet or more
below the surface.
(2)
"Depth
bracket allowable" means the basic oil allowable the division assigns a
pool and based on its depth, unit size or special pool orders, which, when
multiplied by the market demand percentage factor in effect, determines the
pool's top proration unit allowable.
(3)
"Director" means the
director of the New Mexico energy, minerals and natural resources department,
oil conservation division.
(4)
"Division" means the New Mexico energy, minerals and natural
resources department, oil conservation division.
(5)
"Division clerk" means the
division employee the director designates to accept filings in adjudicatory
cases before the division.
(6)
"Downstream facility" means a facility associated with the
transportation (including gathering) or processing of gas or oil (including a
refinery, gas plant, compressor station or crude oil pump station); brine
production; or the oil field service industry.
(7)
"DRO" means diesel range
organics.
E. Definitions beginning with the letter "E".
(1)
"EC" means electrical
conductivity.
(2)
"Enhanced
oil recovery project" means the use or the expanded use of a process for
the displacement of oil from an oil well or division-designated pool other than
a primary recovery process, including but not limited to the use of a pressure
maintenance process; a water flooding process; an immiscible, miscible,
chemical, thermal or biological process; or any other related
process.
(3)
"EOR
project" means an enhanced oil recovery project.
(4)
"EPA" means the United
States environmental protection agency.
(5)
"Exempted aquifer" means an
aquifer that does not currently serve as a source of drinking water, and that
cannot now and will not in the foreseeable future serve as a source of drinking
water because:
(a) it is hydrocarbon
producing;
(b) it is situated at a
depth or location that makes the recovery of water for drinking water purposes
economically or technologically impractical; or
(c) it is so contaminated that it would be
economically or technologically impractical to render that water fit for human
consumption.
(6)
"Exempt waste" means oil field waste exempted from regulation as
hazardous waste pursuant to Subtitle C of RCRA and applicable
regulations.
(7)
"Existing
spacing unit" means a spacing unit containing a producing
well.
F. Definitions beginning with the letter "F".
(1)
"Facility" means a
structure, installation, operation, storage tank, transmission line, access
road, motor vehicle, rolling stock or activity of any kind, whether stationary
or mobile.
(2)
"Field"
means the general area that at least one pool underlies or appears to underlie;
and also includes the underground reservoir or reservoirs containing oil or
gas. The words field and pool mean the same thing when only one underground
reservoir is involved; however, field unlike pool may relate to two or more
pools.
(3)
"Fresh
water" to be protected includes the water in lakes and playas
(regardless of quality, unless the water exceeds 10,000 mg/l TDS and it can be
shown that degradation of the particular water body will not adversely affect
hydrologically connected fresh ground water), the surface waters of streams
regardless of the water quality within a given reach, and underground waters
containing 10,000 mg/l or less of TDS except for which, after notice and
hearing, it is found there is no present or reasonably foreseeable beneficial
use that contamination of such waters would impair.
G. Definitions beginning with the letter "G".
(1)
"Gas",
also known as natural gas, means a combustible vapor composed chiefly of
hydrocarbons occurring naturally in a pool the division has classified as a gas
pool.
(2)
"Gas lift"
means a method of lifting liquid to the surface by injecting gas into a well
from which oil production is obtained.
(3)
"Gas-oil ratio" means the
ratio of the casinghead gas produced in standard cubic feet to the number of
barrels of oil concurrently produced during any stated period.
(4)
"Gas-oil ratio adjustment"
means the reduction in allowable of a high gas oil ratio unit to conform with
the production permitted by the limiting gas-oil ratio for the particular pool
during a particular proration period.
(5)
"Gas transportation
facility" means a pipeline in operation serving gas wells for the
transportation of gas, or some other device or equipment in like operation
where the gas produced from gas wells connected with the pipeline or other
device or equipment can be transported or used for consumption.
(6)
"Gas well" means a well
producing gas from a gas pool, or a well with a gas-oil ratio exceeding 100,000
cubic feet of gas per barrel of oil producing from an oil pool.
(7)
"Geomembrane" means an
impermeable polymeric sheet material that is impervious to liquid and gas if it
maintains its integrity and is used as an integral part of an engineered
structure designed to limit the movement of liquid or gas in a
system.
(8)
"Geotextile" means a sheet material that is less impervious to
liquid than a geomembrane but more resistant to penetration damage, and is used
as part of an engineered structure or system to serve as a filter to prevent
the movement of soil fines into a drainage system, to provide planar flow for
drainage, to serve as a cushion to protect geomembranes or to provide
structural support.
(9)
"GRO" means gasoline range organics.
(10)
"Ground water" means
interstitial water that occurs in saturated earth material and can enter a well
in sufficient amounts to be used as a water supply.
(11)
"Ground water sensitive
area" means an area the division specifically designates after
evaluation of technical evidence where ground water exists that would likely
exceed WQCC standards if contaminants were introduced into the
environment.
H. Definitions beginning with the letter "H".
(1)
"Hardship gas well" means a
gas well where underground waste occurs if the well is shut-in or curtailed
below its minimum sustainable flow rate.
(2)
"Hazard to public health"
exists when water that is used or is reasonably expected to be used in the
future as a human drinking water supply exceeds at the time and place of the
use, one or more of the numerical standards of Subsection A of
20.6.2.3103
NMAC, or the naturally occurring concentrations, whichever is higher, or if a
toxic pollutant as defined at Subsection WW of
20.6.2.7
NMAC affecting human health is present in the water. In determining whether a
release would cause a hazard to public health to exist, the director
investigates and considers the purification and dilution reasonably expected to
occur from the time and place of release to the time and place of withdrawal
for use as human drinking water.
(3)
"Hazardous waste" means
non-exempt waste that exceeds the minimum standards for waste hazardous by
characteristics established in RCRA regulations, 40 CFR 261.21-261.24, or
listed hazardous waste as defined in 40 CFR, part 261 , subpart D, as
amended.
(4)
"HDPE"
means high-density polyethylene.
(5)
"High gas-oil ratio proration
unit" means a unit with at least one producing oil well with a gas-oil
ratio exceeding the limiting gas-oil ratio for the pool in which the unit is
located.
(6)
"H2S" means hydrogen sulfide.
I. Definitions beginning with the letter "I".
(1)
"Illegal
gas" means gas produced from a gas well exceeding the
division-determined allowable.
(2)
"Illegal oil" means oil produced exceeding the allowable the
division fixes.
(3)
"Illegal
product" means a product of illegal gas or illegal oil.
(4)
"Inactive well" means a well
that is not being used for beneficial purposes such as production, injection or
monitoring and that is not being drilled, completed, repaired or worked
over.
(5)
"Injection
well" means a well used for the injection of air, gas, water or other
fluids into an underground stratum.
J. Definitions beginning with the letter "J". RESERVED
K. Definitions beginning with the letter "K". "Knowingly and willfully", for assessing civil penalties, means the voluntary or conscious performance of an act that is prohibited or the voluntary or conscious failure to perform an act or duty that is required. It does not include performances or failures to perform that are honest mistakes or merely inadvertent. It includes, but does not require, performances or failures to perform that result from a criminal or evil intent or from a specific intent to violate the law. The conduct's knowing and willful nature may be established by plain indifference to or reckless disregard of the requirements of statutes, rules, orders or permits. A consistent pattern or performance or failure to perform also may be sufficient to establish the conduct's knowing and willful nature, where such consistent pattern is neither the result of honest mistakes nor mere inadvertency. Conduct that is otherwise regarded as being knowing and willful is rendered neither accidental nor mitigated in character by the belief that the conduct is reasonable or legal.
L. Definitions beginning with the letter "L".
(1)
"Limiting gas-oil ratio" means the gas-oil ratio the division
assigns to a particular oil pool to limit the volumes of casinghead gas that
may be produced from the various oil producing units within that particular
pool.
(2)
"Liner"
means a continuous, low-permeability layer constructed of natural or human-made
materials that restricts the migration of liquid oil field wastes, gases or
leachate.
(3)
"LLDPE"
means linear low-density polyethylene.
(4)
"Load oil" means oil or
liquid hydrocarbon that has been used in remedial operation in an oil or gas
well.
(5)
"Log" means
a systematic detailed and correct record of formations encountered in drilling
a well.
M. Definitions beginning with the letter "M".
(1)
"Marginal unit" means a
proration unit that is incapable of producing top proration unit allowable for
the pool in which it is located.
(2)
"Market demand percentage
factor" means that percentage factor of one hundred percent or less as
the division determines at an oil allowable hearing, which, when multiplied by
the depth bracket allowable applicable to each pool, determines that pool's top
proration unit allowable.
(3)
"MCF" means 1000 cubic feet.
(4)
"MCFD" means 1000 cubic feet
per day.
(5)
"MCFGPD"
means 1000 cubic feet of gas per day.
(6)
"Measured depth" means the
total length of the well bore.
(7)
"Mg/l" means milligrams per liter.
(8)
"Mg/kg" means milligrams per
kilogram.
(9)
"Mineral
estate" is the most complete ownership of oil and gas recognized in law
and includes the mineral interests and the royalty interests.
(10)
"Mineral interest owner"
means a working interest owner, or an owner of a right to explore for and
develop oil and gas that is not subject to an existing oil and gas
lease.
(11)
"Minimum
allowable" means the minimum amount of production from an oil or gas
well that may be advisable from time to time to the end that production will
repay reasonable lifting cost and thus prevent premature abandonment and
resulting waste.
(12)
"Miscellaneous hydrocarbons" means tank bottoms occurring at
pipeline stations; oil storage terminals or refineries; pipeline break oil;
catchings collected in traps, drips or scrubbers by gasoline plant operators in
the plants or in the gathering lines serving the plants; the catchings
collected in private, community or commercial salt water disposal systems; or
other liquid hydrocarbon that is not lease crude or condensate.
N. Definitions beginning with the letter "N".
(1)
"Non-aqueous phase liquid" means an interstitial body of liquid
oil, petroleum product, petrochemical or organic solvent, including an emulsion
containing such material.
(2)
"Non-exempt waste" means oil field waste not exempted from
regulation as hazardous waste pursuant to Subtitle C of RCRA and applicable
regulations.
(3)
"Non-hazardous waste" means non-exempt oil field waste that is not
hazardous waste.
(4)
"Non-marginal unit" means a proration unit that can produce the
top proration unit allowable for the pool in which it is located, and to which
the division assigns a top proration unit allowable.
(5)
"NORM" means the naturally
occurring radioactive materials regulated by 20.3.14 NMAC.
O. Definitions beginning with the letter "O".
(1)
"Official
gas-oil ratio test" means the periodic gas-oil ratio test the operator
performs pursuant to division order by the method and in the manner the
division prescribes.
(2)
"Oil" means petroleum hydrocarbon produced from a well in the
liquid phase and that existed in a liquid phase in the reservoir. This
definition includes crude oil or crude petroleum oil.
(3)
"Oil field waste" means
non-domestic waste resulting from the exploration, development, production or
storage of oil or gas pursuant to Paragraph (21) of Subsection B of Section
70-2-12
NMSA 1978 and the oil field service industry, the transportation of crude oil
or natural gas, the treatment of natural gas or the refinement of crude oil
pursuant to Paragraph (22) of Subsection B of Section
70-2-12
NMSA 1978, including waste generated from oil field remediation or abatement
activity regardless of the date of release. Oil field waste does not include
waste not generally associated with oil and gas industry operations such as
tires, appliances or ordinary garbage or refuse unless generated at a
division-regulated facility, and does not include sewage, regardless of the
source.
(4)
"Oil well"
means a well capable of producing oil and that is not a gas well as defined in
Paragraph (6) of Subsection G of 19.15.2.7 NMAC.
(5)
"Operator" means a person
who, duly authorized, manages a lease's development or a producing property's
operation, or who manages a facility's operation.
(6)
"Overproduction" means the
amount of oil or gas produced during a proration period exceeding the amount
authorized on the proration schedule.
(7)
"Owner" means the person who
has the right to drill into and to produce from a pool, and to appropriate the
production either for the person or for the person and another.
P. Definitions beginning with the letter "P".
(1)
"Penalized unit" means a proration unit to which, because of an
excessive gas-oil ratio, the division assigns an allowable that is less than
top proration unit allowable for the pool in which it is located and also less
than the ability of the well or wells on the unit to produce.
(2)
"Person" means an individual
or entity including partnerships, corporations, associations, responsible
business or association agents or officers, the state or a political
subdivision of the state or an agency, department or instrumentality of the
United States and of its officers, agents or employees.
(3)
"Pit" means a surface or
sub-surface impoundment, man-made or natural depression or diked area on the
surface. Excluded from this definition are berms constructed around tanks or
other facilities solely for safety, secondary containment and storm water or
run-on control.
(4)
"Playa
lake" means a level or nearly level area that occupies the lowest part
of a completely closed basin and that is covered with water at irregular
intervals, forming a temporary lake.
(5)
"Pool" means an underground
reservoir containing a common accumulation of oil or gas. Each zone of a
general structure, which zone is completely separated from other zones in the
structure, is covered by the word pool as used in 19.15.2 NMAC through 19.15.39
NMAC. "Pool" is synonymous with "common source of supply" and with "common
reservoir".
(6)
"Potential" means a well's properly determined capacity to produce
oil or gas under division-prescribed conditions.
(7)
"Ppm" means parts per
million by volume.
(8)
"PQL" means practical quantitation limit.
(9)
"Pressure maintenance" means
the injection of gas or other fluid into a reservoir, either to maintain the
reservoir's existing pressure or to retard the reservoir pressure's natural
decline.
(10)
"Produced
water" means a fluid that is an incidental byproduct from drilling for
or the production of oil and gas.
(11)
"Producer" means the owner
of a well or wells capable of producing oil or gas or both in paying
quantities.
(12)
"Product" means a commodity or thing made or manufactured from oil
or gas, and derivatives of oil or gas, including refined crude oil, crude tops,
topped crude, processed crude petroleum, residue from crude petroleum, cracking
stock, uncracked fuel oil, treated crude oil, fuel oil, residuum, gas oil,
naphtha, distillate, gasoline, kerosene, benzene, wash oil, lubricating oil and
blends or mixtures of oil or gas or a derivative thereof.
(13)
"Proration day" consists of
24 consecutive hours that begin at 7:00 a.m. and end at 7:00 a.m. on the
following day.
(14)
"Proration month" means the calendar month that begins at 7:00
a.m. on the first day of the month and ends at 7:00 a.m. on the first day of
the next succeeding month.
(15)
"Proration period" means for oil the proration month and for gas
the 12-month period that begins at 7:00 a.m. on January 1 of each year and ends
at 7:00 a.m. on January 1 of the succeeding year or other period designated by
general or special order of the division.
(16)
"Proration schedule" means
the division orders authorizing the production, purchase and transportation of
oil, casinghead gas and gas from the various units of oil or of gas in
allocated pools.
(17)
"Proration unit" means the area in a pool that can be effectively
and efficiently drained by one well as determined by the division or commission
(see Subsection B of Section
70-2-17
NMSA 1978) as well as the area assigned to an individual well for the purposes
of allocating allowable production pursuant to a prorationing order for the
pool.
(18)
"Prospective
spacing unit" means a hypothetical spacing unit that does not yet have a
producing well.
(19)
"PVC" means poly vinyl chloride.
(20)
"Psi" means pounds per
square inch.
Q. Definitions beginning with the letter "Q". RESERVED
R. Definitions beginning with the letter "R".
(1)
"RCRA" means the federal
Resource Recovery and Conservation Act.
(2)
"Recomplete" means the
subsequent completion of a well in a different pool from the pool in which it
was originally completed.
(3)
"Regulated NORM" means NORM contained in oil-field soils,
equipment, sludges or other materials related to oil-field operations or
processes exceeding the radiation levels specified in
20.3.14.1403
NMAC.
(4)
"Release"
means breaks, leaks, spills, releases, fires or blowouts involving oil,
produced water, condensate, drilling fluids, completion fluids or other
chemical or contaminant or mixture thereof, including oil field wastes and
gases to the environment.
(5)
"Remediation plan" means a written description of a program to
address unauthorized releases. The plan may include appropriate information,
including assessment data, health risk demonstrations and corrective action or
actions. The plan may also include an alternative proposing no action beyond
the spill report's submittal.
(6)
"Responsible person" means the owner or operator who shall
complete a division-approved corrective action for pollution from
releases.
(7)
"Rules"
means the rules enacted pursuant to the Oil and Gas Act, 19.15.2 to
19.15.39 NMAC, as they may be modified or amended.
(8)
"Royalty interest owner"
means the owner of an interest in oil and gas that does not presently entitle
the owner to explore, drill or otherwise develop those minerals, including
lessors, royalty interest owners and overriding royalty interest owners.
Royalty interests are non-cost bearing.
(9)
"Run-on" means rainwater,
leachate or other liquid that drains from other land onto any part of a
division-approved facility.
S. Definitions beginning with the letter "S".
(1)
"SAR"
means the sodium adsorption ratio.
(2)
"Secondary recovery" means a
method of recovering quantities of oil or gas from a reservoir which quantities
would not be recoverable by ordinary primary depletion methods.
(3)
"Sediment oil" means tank
bottoms and other accumulations of liquid hydrocarbons on an oil and gas lease,
which hydrocarbons are not merchantable through normal channels.
(4)
"Shallow pool" means a pool
that has a depth range from zero to 5000 feet.
(5)
"Shut-in" means the status
of a production well or an injection well that is temporarily closed, whether
by closing a valve or disconnection or other physical means.
(6)
"Shut-in pressure" means the
gauge pressure noted at the wellhead when the well is completely shut-in, not
to be confused with bottom hole pressure.
(7)
"Significant modification of an
abatement plan" means a change in the abatement technology used
excluding design and operational parameters, or relocation of twenty-five
percent or more of the compliance sampling stations, for a single medium, as
designated pursuant to Subparagraph (d) of Paragraph (2) of Subsection D of
19.15.30.13
NMAC.
(8)
"Soil" means
earth, sediments or other unconsolidated accumulations of solid particles
produced by the physical and chemical disintegration of rocks, and that may or
may not contain organic matter.
(9)
"Spacing unit" means the area allocated to a well under a well
spacing order or rule. Under the Oil and Gas Act, Paragraph (10) of Subsection
B of Section
70-2-12
NMSA 1978, the commission may fix spacing units without first creating
proration units. See Rutter & Wilbanks corp. v. oil conservation
comm'n, 87 NM 286 (1975). This is the area designated on form
C-102.
(10)
"Subsurface
water" means ground water and water in the vadose zone that may become
ground water or surface water in the reasonably foreseeable future or that
vegetation may use.
(11)
"Surface waste management facility" means a facility that receives
oil field waste for collection, disposal, evaporation, remediation,
reclamation, treatment or storage except:
(a)
a facility that utilizes underground injection wells subject to division
regulation pursuant to the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, and does not manage
oil field wastes on the ground in pits, ponds, below-grade tanks or land
application units;
(b) a facility
permitted pursuant to the New Mexico environmental improvement board rules or
WQCC rules;
(c) a temporary pit as
defined in 19.15.17 NMAC;
(d) a
below-grade tank or pit that receives oil field waste from a single well,
permitted pursuant to 19.15.37 NMAC, regardless of the capacity or volume of
oil field waste received;
(e) a
facility located at an oil and gas production facility and used for temporary
storage of oil field waste generated on-site from normal operations, if the
facility does not pose a threat to fresh water, public health, safety or the
environment;
(f) a remediation
conducted in accordance with a division-approved abatement plan pursuant to
19.15.30 NMAC, a corrective action pursuant to 19.15.29 NMAC or a corrective
action of a non-reportable release;
(g) a facility operating pursuant to a
division emergency order;
(h) a
site or facility where the operator is conducting emergency response operations
to abate an immediate threat to fresh water, public health, safety or the
environment or as the division has specifically directed or approved;
or
(i) a facility that receives
only exempt oil field waste, receives less than 50 barrels of liquid water per
day (averaged over a 30-day period), has a capacity to hold 500 barrels of
liquids or less and is permitted pursuant to 19.15.17 NMAC.
T. Definitions beginning with the letter "T".
(1)
"Tank bottoms" means that accumulation of hydrocarbon material and
other substances that settles naturally below oil in tanks and receptacles that
are used in oil's handling and storing, and which accumulation contains more
than two percent of BS & W; provided, however, that with respect to lease
production and for lease storage tanks, a tank bottom shall be limited to that
volume of the tank in which it is contained that lies below the bottom of the
pipeline outlet to the tank.
(2)
"TDS" means total dissolved solids.
(3)
"Temporary abandonment" or
"temporarily abandoned status" means the status of a well that is
inactive.
(4)
"Top proration
unit allowable for gas" means the maximum number of cubic feet of gas,
for the proration period, the division allocates to a gas producing unit in an
allocated gas pool.
(5)
"Top
proration unit allowable for oil" means the maximum number of barrels
for oil daily for each calendar month the division allocates on a proration
unit basis in a pool to non-marginal units. The division shall determine the
top proration unit allowable for a pool by multiplying the applicable depth
bracket allowable by the market demand percentage factor in effect.
(6)
"TPH" means total petroleum
hydrocarbons.
(7)
"Treating
plant" means a plant constructed for wholly or partially or being used
wholly or partially for reclaiming, treating, processing or in any manner
making tank bottoms or other waste oil marketable.
(8)
"Tribal lands" means those
lands for which the United States government has a trust responsibility to a
native American tribe or a member of a native American tribe. This includes
reservations, pueblo land grants, tribal trust lands and individual trust
allotments.
(9)
"Tribal
leases" means those leases of minerals or interests in or rights to
minerals for which the United States government has a trust responsibility to a
native American tribe or a member of a native American tribe.
(10)
"Tribal minerals" means
those minerals for which the United States government has a trust
responsibility to a native American tribe or a member of a native American
tribe.
(11)
"True vertical
depth" means the difference in elevation between the ground level at the
surface location of the well and the deepest point in the well bore.
(12)
"Tubingless completion"
means a well completion in which the production string of casing has an outside
diameter of 2.875 inches or less.
(13)
"Tubingless multiple
completion" means completion in which two or more common sources of
supply are produced through an equal number of casing strings cemented in a
common well bore, each such string of casing having an outside diameter of
2.875 inches or less, with the production from each common source of supply
completely segregated by cement.
U. Definitions beginning with the letter "U".
(1)
"Underground
source of drinking water" means an aquifer that supplies water for human
consumption or that contains ground water having a TDS concentration of 10,000
mg/l or less and that is not an exempted aquifer.
(2)
"Underproduction" means the
amount of oil or the amount of gas during a proration period by which a given
proration unit failed to produce an amount equal to that the division
authorizes in the proration schedule.
(3)
"Unit of proration for gas"
consists of such multiples of 40 acres as may be prescribed by division-issued
special pool orders.
(4)
"Unit of proration for oil" consists of one 40-acre tract or such
multiples of 40-acre tracts as may be prescribed by division-issued special
pool orders.
(5)
"Unorthodox
well location" means a location that does not conform to the spacing
requirements division rules establish.
(6)
"Unstable area" means a
location that is susceptible to natural or human-induced events or forces
capable of impairing the integrity of some or all a division-approved
facility's structural components. Examples of unstable areas are areas of poor
foundation conditions, areas susceptible to mass earth movements and karst
terrain areas where karst topography is developed because of dissolution of
limestone, dolomite or other soluble rock. Characteristic physiographic
features of karst terrain include sinkholes, sinking streams, caves, large
springs and blind valleys.
(7)
"Upstream facility" means a facility or operation associated with
the exploration, development, production or storage of oil or gas that is not a
downstream facility.
V. Definitions beginning with the letter "V". "Vadose zone" means unsaturated earth material below the land surface and above ground water, or in between bodies of ground water.
W. Definitions beginning with the letter "W".
(1)
"Waste",
in addition to its ordinary meaning, includes:
(a) underground waste as those words are
generally understood in the oil and gas business, and to embrace the
inefficient, excessive or improper use or dissipation of the reservoir energy,
including gas energy and water drive, of a pool, and the locating, spacing,
drilling, equipping, operating or producing of a well or wells in a manner to
reduce or tend to reduce the total quantity of oil or gas ultimately recovered
from a pool, and the use of inefficient underground storage of gas;
(b) surface waste as those words are
generally understood in the oil and gas business, and to embrace the
unnecessary or excessive surface loss or destruction without beneficial use,
however caused, of gas of any type or in any form, or oil, or a product
thereof, but including the loss or destruction, without beneficial use,
resulting from evaporation, seepage, leakage or fire, especially such loss or
destruction incident to or resulting from the manner of spacing, equipping,
operating or producing a well or wells, or incident to or resulting from the
use of inefficient storage or from the production of oil or gas, in excess of
the reasonable market demand;
(c)
oil production in this state in excess of the reasonable market demand for the
oil; the excess production causes or results in waste that the Oil and Gas Act
prohibits; reasonable market demand as used herein with respect to oil means
the demand for the oil, for reasonable current requirements for current
consumption and use within or outside of the state, together with the demand of
amounts as are reasonably necessary for building up or maintaining reasonable
storage reserves of oil or the products thereof, or both the oil and
products;
(d) the non-ratable
purchase or taking of oil in this state; the non-ratable taking and purchasing
causes or results in waste, as defined in Subparagraphs (a), (b) and (c) of
Paragraph (1) of Subsection W of 19.15.2.7 NMAC and causes waste by violating
the Oil and Gas Act, Section
70-2-16
NMSA 1978;
(e) the production in
this state of gas from a gas well or wells, or from a gas pool, in excess of
the reasonable market demand from such source for gas of the type produced or
in excess of the capacity of gas transportation facilities for such type of
gas; the words "reasonable market demand", as used herein with respect to gas,
shall be construed to mean the demand for gas for reasonable current
requirements, for current consumption and for use within or outside the state,
together with the demand for such amounts as are necessary for building up or
maintaining reasonable storage reserves of gas or products thereof, or both the
gas and products.
(2)
"Water" means all water including water situated wholly or partly
within or bordering upon the state, whether surface or subsurface, public or
private, except private waters that do not combine with other surface or
subsurface water.
(3)
"Water
contaminant" means a substance that could alter if released or spilled
water's physical, chemical, biological or radiological qualities. Water
contaminant does not mean source, special nuclear or by-product material as
defined by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954.
(4)
"Watercourse" means a river,
creek, arroyo, canyon, draw or wash or other channel having definite banks and
bed with visible evidence of the occasional flow of water.
(5)
"Water pollution" means
introducing or permitting the introduction into water, either directly or
indirectly, of one or more water contaminants in such quantity and of such
duration as may with reasonable probability injure human health, animal or
plant life or property, or to unreasonably interfere with the public welfare or
property use.
(6)
"Well
blowout" means a loss of control over and subsequent eruption of a
drilling or workover well or the rupture of the casing, casinghead or wellhead
of an oil or gas well or injection or disposal well, whether active or
inactive, accompanied by the sudden emission of fluids, gaseous or liquid, from
the well.
(7)
"Well
bore" means the interior surface of a cased or open hole through which
drilling, production or injection operations are conducted.
(8)
"Wellhead protection area"
means the area within 200 horizontal feet of a private, domestic fresh water
well or spring used by less than five households for domestic or stock watering
purposes or within 1000 horizontal feet of any other fresh water well or
spring. Wellhead protection areas does not include areas around water wells
drilled after an existing oil or gas waste storage, treatment or disposal site
was established.
(9)
"Wetlands" means those areas that are inundated or saturated by
surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and
under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically
adapted for life in saturated soil conditions in New Mexico. This definition
does not include constructed wetlands used for wastewater treatment
purposes.
(10)
"Working
interest owner" means the owner of an operating interest under an oil
and gas lease who has the exclusive right to exploit the oil and gas minerals.
Working interests are cost bearing.
(11)
"WQCC" means the New Mexico
water quality control commission.
Disclaimer: These regulations may not be the most recent version. New Mexico may have more current or accurate information. We make no warranties or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained on this site or the information linked to on the state site. Please check official sources.
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