Current through Reg. 49, No. 12; March 22, 2024
(a) The daily allowable production of any
lease or property shall not include production based upon the daily potential
production of the field or area in which such well is located unless such well
is actually on production, and such lease or property shall share in the total
allowable production of the field or area, only to the extent of such well's
actual ability to produce from day to day regardless of the rated potential
production thereof according to the commission schedules.
(b) Production of a well in any one day shall
not exceed 110% of the top well allowable as fixed by applicable rules and
orders. Production and runs from a lease during the monthly allowable period
shall not exceed 105% of the monthly allowable for the well or wells on the
lease. However, the volume of oil that is produced and removed from the
producing property as tolerance production shall be treated as overproduction
and overruns shall be made up during the next succeeding month.
(c) All oil allowable volumes shall be
measured in a manner consistent with §
RSA
3.71 of this title (relating to Pipeline
Tariffs) (Statewide Rule 71).
(d) A
newly completed well coming into production during a proration period will be
gauged either by a commission agent, or pipeline gauger if a commission agent
is not available, if an offset lease owner witnesses the gauge taken by the
pipeline gauger. The allowable production of such newly completed well shall be
in addition to the existing total allowable production of the field as
previously ascertained. The well whose allowable is thus fixed shall take its
ratable share of production at the next succeeding schedule date according to
rule.
(e) All oil produced from any
well governed by any proration order of the commission shall be charged against
the allowable daily production of such well regardless of the disposition which
is made of the oil so produced.
(f)
The operator of any lease or unitized area in the State of Texas may be
permitted to produce the total allowable for any such lease or unitized area
subject to the following provisions:
(1) The
operator must submit an application to produce that total allowable on a lease
or unit production basis to the commission with a plat showing the subject
lease or unit as well as the adjacent properties thereto. Such plat shall
identify properly all properties and wells. The applicant shall give written
notice to all operators in the field when application is made for permission to
produce on a lease basis in a field. If no protest is received by the
commission within 15 days of the date of mailing, the application may be
granted by administrative action. If protest is received, notice will be given
and the matter set for hearing.
(2)
The total daily allowable of the lease or unit shall be initially established
as an allowable equal to the sum of the current allowables for all wells on the
lease or unit. The allowable credited to any new or existing well may be
increased to the top well allowable permitted by subsequently filing a new
potential test on that well. The maximum total daily allowable of the lease or
unit will be equal to the sum of the scheduled top allowables assignable to
each well for its proration unit.
(3) The total daily allowable of the lease or
unit may be produced in any quantity from any well or combination of wells with
the exception that wells nearer than a regular location from a lease or unit
line shall not be permitted to produce more than their normal allowables and
wells at a distance of a regular location from a lease or unit line shall not
be produced at a rate of more that two times the top allowable for such well
unless waivers of objection to rates in excess of this limit have been obtained
from the operators of wells offsetting the well.
(4) Annual well test or allocation:
(A) An annual well test, or an allocation
pursuant to §
RSA
3.53<subdiv>(a)(2)</subdiv> of
this title (relating to Annual Well Tests and Well Status Reports Required)
shall be made and reported on the oil well status report form on each lease or
unit property to which a lease production basis has been granted showing an
individual well test or allocation on each oil well on the property made during
the prescribed test period determined by the commission. Annual well tests may
be witnessed by offset operators. An offset operator that desires to witness an
annual well test shall give the testing operator written notice of its desire
to witness the next scheduled annual well test of a specific well. A testing
operator that has received prior written notice that an offset operator desires
to witness an annual well test shall give that offset operator at least 24
hours advance notice of the date of the next annual well test for that well.
The Commission will use the test or allocation data in the preparation of the
oil proration schedule. The total schedule daily lease allowable shall be the
sum of the individual well allowables as determined under applicable rules and
the lease production basis shall be designated on the oil proration schedule by
an appropriate symbol. All wells on the lease for which an allowable is
requested shall have their production volumes reported pursuant to
§3.53(a).
(B) Any producing
well with a gas-oil ratio in excess of that permitted by the applicable rules
shall have its daily allowable calculated by dividing the producing gas-oil
ratio into the daily gas limit of the well.
(5) The Commission shall continue to require
special tests in cases of commingled production where individual lease
apportionment is determined by this method. Other special tests may be required
as the Commission deems necessary.
(6) In the event that the monthly gas
production of the lease or unit exceeds the permissible monthly lease gas
limit, the volume of gas in excess of the lease gas limit shall be considered
overproduction and must be made up by underproduction of the lease gas limit.
Whenever the overproduced amount equals the next month's lease gas limit the
overproduced amount shall immediately be reduced to zero by shutting in the
lease or by other means acceptable to the Commission.
(7) The East Texas Field is excluded from the
provisions of this section.
(g) Administrative cancelation of
overproduction.
(1) An operator may request
in writing to the Commission that overproduction for a specific lease be
canceled. The request shall include a listing of the names and addresses of all
offsetting operators in the same field as the lease for which the request is
filed.
(2) Upon receipt of an
operator's written request:
(A) Commission
staff shall determine whether the operator's wells on the specified lease are
in compliance with Commission rules excluding rules pertaining to
overproduction.
(B) If the wells
are found to be in compliance, the Commission staff shall send written notice
to offset operators as identified in the request advising them of the request
and giving them not less than 15 days to file a written objection to the
request.
(C) If no objection to the
request is received, the overproduction on the lease requested by the operator
shall be canceled.
(D) If objection
to the request is received or if Commission staff determines that the
operator's wells are not in compliance with Commission rules excluding rules
pertaining to overproduction, then the requested cancelation shall not be
administratively approved. The operator may request that the matter be
scheduled for public hearing pursuant to Tex. Nat. Res. Code §86.090. The
burden of proof shall be on the applicant operator.