N.M. Admin. Code § 19.15.26.8

Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 23, December 10, 2024

Section 19.15.26.8 - INJECTION OF FLUIDS INTO RESERVOIRS

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.

N.M. Admin. Code § 19.15.26.8

19.15.26.8 NMAC - Rp, 19.15.9.701 NMAC, 12/1/08, Amended by New Mexico Register, Volume XXIX, Issue 24, December 27, 2018, eff. 12/27/2018