Section 15 AAC 55.213 - Methodologies under AS 43.55.160 (f)(3)(a) This section sets out requirements that must be met by a methodology to be accepted by the department under 15 AAC 55.212(f) (1). (b) A methodology must provide for determining the amounts of oil and gas recovered each month from wells with producing intervals that are all within the acreage added to an existing participating area by (1) continuous metering of the oil and of the gas, before commingling with produced fluids from other wells, by one or more multiphase flow metering systems that are demonstrated with a 90 percent or higher level of confidence to be accurate within plus or minus five percent and that meet standards and requirements relating to operation, procedures. equipment and materials, software, installation, performance, calibration, testing, field verification, monitoring, maintenance, sampling, correction to standard conditions, and reporting that the department determines are appropriate for the purposes of AS 43.55,160(f)(3); in determining what standards and requirements are appropriate, the department will consider the relevant portions of the first edition of chapter 20.3 of the American Petroleum Institute Manual of Petroleum Measurement Standards (January 2013), which is adopted by reference for that purpose; the accuracy standard of plus or minus five percent in this paragraph applies to oil, except that the accuracy standard applies to gas rather than oil during a time period during which the gross value at the point of production of the gas produced from the acreage added to the existing participating area, other than gas produced before 2022 that is used in the state and gas produced after 2021, exceeds the gross value at the point of production of the oil produced from that acreage;(2)continuous metering of the oil and of the gas, after mechanical separation and before commingling with produced fluids from other wells, that (A) uses equipment and procedures that are sufficient for custody transfer purposes; and(B) is regulated by the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission under 20 AAC 25.228 as the measurement of oil and gas severed from the property or unit;(3) continuous metering of the oil and of the gas, after mechanical separation and before commingling with produced fluids from other wells, that (A) uses equipment and procedures that are sufficient for custody transfer purposes;(B) is not regulated by the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission under 20 AAC 25.228 as the measurement of oil and gas severed from the property or unit; and(C) meets the standards and requirements of 20 AAC 25.228, adopted by reference as amended from time to time, except that for this purpose the term "commission" in 20 AAC 25.228 is replaced with the term "Department of Revenue"; or(4) another method of continuous metering of the oil and of the gas, before commingling with produced fluids from other wells, that (A) is demonstrated with a 90 percent or higher level of confidence to meet the accuracy standard of plus or minus five percent set out in (1) of this subsection; and(B) meets standards and requirements relating to operation, procedures, equipment and materials, software, installation, performance, calibration, testing, field verification, monitoring, maintenance, sampling, correction to standard conditions, and reporting that the department determines are appropriate for the purposes of AS 43.55.160(f)(3). (c) The metering provisions of (b) of this section do not require separate metering of individual wells. The metering provisions of (b) of this section may be met by metering the combined flow from all of the wells with producing intervals that are all within the acreage added to an existing participating area, by separately metering the combined flows from subsets of the wells with producing intervals that are all within the acreage added to an existing participating area, by separately metering individual wells with producing intervals that are all within the acreage added to an existing participating area, or by a combination of separately metering the combined flows from subsets of the wells with producing intervals that are all within the acreage added to an existing participating area and separately metering individual wells with producing intervals that are all within the acreage added to an existing participating area.(d) A methodology must provide for excluding any oil or gas that is not considered produced under AS 43.55.020(e) and 15 AAC 55.151(e). The amount excluded may not be less than the pro rata amount of the oil or gas, respectively, recovered from the entire participating area and not considered produced under AS 43.55.020(e) and 15 AAC 55.151(e). (e) A methodology must provide for excluding any gas produced (1) before 2022 that is used in the state; the amount excluded may not be less than the pro rata amount of the gas recovered from the entire participating area that is produced before 2022 and used in the state;(2) after 2021; the amount excluded may not be less than the pro rata amount of the gas recovered from the entire participating area that is produced after 2021. (f) If gas is run through a gas processing plant after being metered under (b) of this section, the methodology must include an acceptable method to adjust the metered amounts of oil and gas to account for the recovery of liquid hydrocarbons at the gas processing plant.(g) A methodology that provides for metering under (b)(1) or (4) of this section must provide for subtracting from the metered amount of oil the shrinkage that occurs in the downstream mechanical separation process(h)A methodology must provide for a method to calculate an individual producer's share of the total volumes of oil and gas produced that are demonstrated to be from the acreage added to the existing participating area.Eff. 12/25/2013, Register 208, January 2014; am 1/1/2022, Register 240, January 2022Authority:AS 43.05.080
AS 43.55.110
AS 43.55.160