New Mexico Administrative Code
Title 19 - NATURAL RESOURCES AND WILDLIFE
Chapter 15 - OIL AND GAS
Part 26 - INJECTION
Section 19.15.26.8 - INJECTION OF FLUIDS INTO RESERVOIRS
Universal Citation: 19 NM Admin Code 19.15.26.8
Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 18, September 24, 2024
A. Permit for injection required.
(1) A permit is required
under 19.15.26 NMAC for any injection wells that inject:
(a) produced water or other fluids that are
brought to the surface in connection with natural gas storage operations or
conventional oil or natural gas production and may be commingled with waste
waters from gas plants that are an integral part of production operations,
unless those waters are classified as a hazardous waste at the time of
injection;
(b) fluids for enhanced
recovery of oil or natural gas; and
(c) fluids for storage of hydrocarbons that
are liquid at standard temperature and pressure.
(2) The division shall grant a permit for
injection under
19.15.26.8
NMAC only to an operator who is in compliance with Subsection A of
19.15.5.9
NMAC. The division may revoke a permit for injection issued under
19.15.26.8
NMAC after notice and hearing if the operator is not in compliance with
Subsection A of
19.15.5.9
NMAC.
B. Method of making application.
(1) The operator
shall apply for authority to construct and operate an injection well by
submitting form C-108 complete with all attachments to the division.
(2) The applicant shall furnish, by certified
or registered mail, a copy of the application to each owner of the land surface
on which each injection or disposal well is to be located and to each leasehold
operator and other affected persons, as defined in Subsection A of
19.15.2.7
NMAC, within any tract wholly or partially contained within one-half mile of
the well.
C. Administrative approval.
(1) If
the application is for administrative approval rather than for a hearing, it
shall be accompanied by a copy of a legal notice the applicant published in a
newspaper of general circulation in the county in which the proposed injection
well is located. The legal notice shall include:
(a) the applicant's name, address, phone
number and contact party;
(b) the
injection well's intended purpose, with the exact location of single wells or
the section, township and range location of multiple wells;
(c) the formation name and depth with
expected maximum injection rates and pressures; and
(d) a notation that interested parties shall
file objections or requests for hearing with the division within 15 days.
(2) The division shall
not approve an application for administrative approval until 15 days following
the division's receipt of form C-108 complete with all attachments including
evidence of mailing as required under Paragraph (2) of Subsection B of
19.15.26.8
NMAC and proof of publication as required by Paragraph (1) of Subsection C of
19.15.26.8
NMAC.
(3) If the division does not
receive an objection within the 15-day period, and a hearing is not otherwise
required, the division may approve the application
administratively.
D. Hearings. If a written objection to an application for administrative approval of an injection well is filed within 15 days after receipt of a complete application, if 19.15.26.8 NMAC requires a hearing or if the director deems a hearing advisable, the division shall set the application for hearing and give notice of the hearing.
E. Produced water disposal wells.
(1) The director may
grant an application for a produced water disposal well administratively,
without hearing, only when the waters to be disposed of are mineralized to such
a degree as to be unfit for domestic, stock, irrigation or other general use
and when the waters are to be disposed of into a formation older than Triassic
(Lea county only) and the division receives no objections pursuant to
Subsection C of
19.15.26.8
NMAC.
(2) The division shall not
permit disposal into zones containing waters having total dissolved solids
concentrations of 10,000 mg/1 or less except after public notice and hearing,
provided that the division may, by order issued after public notice and
hearing, establish exempted aquifers for such zones where the division may
administratively approve the injection.
(3) Notwithstanding the provisions of
Paragraph (2) of Subsection E of
19.15.26.8
NMAC, the director may authorize disposal into such zones administratively if
the waters to be disposed of are of higher quality than the native water in the
disposal zone.
F. Pressure maintenance, secondary recovery and enhanced oil recovery injection projects.
(1) The division shall set
applications for establishment of pressure maintenance, secondary recovery and
enhanced oil recovery injection projects for hearing. The division shall fix
the project area and the allowable formula for an injection project on an
individual basis after notice and hearing.
(2) The project area of an injection project
shall comprise the spacing or proration units a given operator owns or operates
upon which injection wells are located plus spacing or proration units the same
operator owns or operates that directly or diagonally offset the injection
tracts and have producing wells completed on them in the same formation;
provided however, that the division may include in the project area additional
spacing or proration units not directly or diagonally offsetting an injection
tract if, after notice and hearing, the operator establishes that the
additional units have wells completed on the unit that have experienced a
substantial response to water injection.
(3) The allowable the division assigns to
wells in an injection project area shall equal the wells' ability to produce
and is not subject to the depth bracket allowable for the pool or to the market
demand percentage factor.
(4)
Nothing in Subsection F of
19.15.26.8
NMAC shall prohibit the division's assignment of special allowables to wells in
buffer zones after notice and hearing. The division may assign special
allowables in the limited instances where it is established at a hearing that
it is imperative for the protection of correlative rights to do so.
(5) The division may authorize the expansion
of injection projects and the placement of additional wells on injection after
hearing or administratively, subject to the notice requirements of Subsection B
of
19.15.26.8
NMAC.
(6) The director may grant an
exception to the hearing requirements of Subsection A of
19.15.26.8
NMAC for conversion to injection of additional wells provided that the wells
are necessary to develop or maintain thorough and efficient injection
operations for an authorized project and provided that the division does not
receive an objection pursuant to Subsection C of
19.15.26.8
NMAC.
(7) An established injection
project shall have only one designated operator. The division shall set for
hearing an application for exception.
G. Storage wells.
(1) The director may grant administratively,
without hearing, an application for the underground storage of liquefied
petroleum gas or liquid hydrocarbons in secure caverns within massive salt
beds, provided the applicant has complied with the notice provisions of
Subsection B of
19.15.26.8
NMAC and the division receives no objections pursuant to Subsection C of
19.15.26.8
NMAC.
(2) In addition to the
filing requirements of Subsection B of
19.15.26.8
NMAC, the applicant for approval of a storage well under Subsection G of
19.15.26.8
NMAC shall file the following:
(a) with the
director, financial assurance in accordance with the provisions of 19.5.8 NMAC;
and
(b) with the appropriate
division district office:
(i) form
C-101;
(ii) form C-102;
and
(iii) form C-105.
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