16 Tex. Admin. Code § 3.28 - Potential and Deliverability of Gas Wells to be Ascertained and Reported
(a) The information
necessary to determine the absolute daily open flow potential of each producing
associated or nonassociated gas well shall be ascertained, and a report shall
be filed as required with the Commission within 90 days of completion of the
well. The test shall be performed in accordance with the Commission's
publication, Back Pressure Test for Natural Gas Wells, State of Texas, or other
test procedure approved in advance by the Commission and shall be reported on
the Commission's prescribed form. An operator may determine absolute open flow
potential from a stabilized one-point test. For a one-point test, the well
shall be flowed on a single choke setting until a stabilized flow is achieved,
but not less than 72 hours. The shut-in and flowing bottom hole pressures shall
be calculated in the manner prescribed for a four-point test. The Commission
may authorize a one-point test of shorter duration for a well which is not
connected to a sales line, but a test which is in compliance with this section
must be conducted and reported after the well is connected before an allowable
will be assigned to the well. Back-dating of allowables will be performed in
accordance with §
3.31 of this title (relating to
Gas Reservoirs and Gas Well Allowable).
(b) After conducting the test required by
subsection (a) of this section each operator of a gas well shall conduct an
initial deliverability test and report the test results on the Commission's
prescribed form not later than 90 days after completion of the well. If a
72-hour one-point back pressure test on a well connected to a sales line was
conducted as provided in subsection (a) of this section, the same test may be
used to determine initial deliverability, provided the test was conducted in
accordance with subsection (c) of this section.
(1) After the initial deliverability test has
been conducted, the following schedule for well testing applies:
(A) Nonassociated gas wells shall be tested
semiannually.
(B) Associated gas
wells described in §
3.49(b) of this
title (relating to Gas-Oil Ratio) shall be tested annually.
(C) Wells with current reported
deliverability of 100 Mcf a day or less are not required to test as long as
deliverability and production remain at or below 100 Mcf a day but are required
to file Form G-10 according to the instructions on the form.
(D) Wells with a deliverability greater than
100 Mcf a day and less than or equal to 250 Mcf a day in fields without special
field rules are not required to be tested as long as deliverability and
production remain equal to or less than 250 Mcf a day.
(2) Notwithstanding any of the provisions in
this section on frequency of testing, gas wells commingling liquid hydrocarbons
before metering must comply with the testing provisions applicable to such
wells.
(3) All deliverability tests
shall be conducted in accordance with subsection (c) of this section and the
instructions printed on the Form G-10. The results of each test shall be
attested to by the operator or its appointed agent. The first purchaser or its
representative upon request to the operator shall have the right to witness
such tests. Gas meter charts, printouts, or other documents showing the actual
measurement of the gas produced or other data required to be recorded during
any deliverability test conducted under this subsection shall be preserved as
required by §
3.1 of this title (relating to
Organization Report; Retention of Records; Notice Requirements).
(4) In the event that the first purchaser and
the operator cannot agree upon the validity of the test results, then either
party may request a retest of the well. The first purchaser upon request to the
operator shall have the right to witness the retest. If either party requests a
representative from the Commission to witness a retest of the well, the results
of a Commission-witnessed test shall be conclusive for the purposes of this
section until the next regularly scheduled test of the well. In the event a
retest is witnessed by the Commission, the retest shall be signed by the
representative of the Commission.
(5) In the event that downhole remedial work
or other substantial production enhancement work is performed, or if a pumping
unit, compressor, or other equipment is installed to increase deliverability of
a well subject to the Commission-witnessed testing procedure described in this
subsection, a new test may be requested and shall be performed according to the
procedure outlined in this subsection.
(c) Unless applicable special field rules
provide otherwise or the director of the oil and gas division or the director's
delegate authorizes an alternate procedure due to a well's producing
characteristics, deliverability tests shall be performed as follows.
Deliverability tests shall be scheduled by the producer within the testing
period designated by the Commission, and only the recorded data specified by
the Form G-10 is required to be reported. All deliverability tests shall be
performed by producing the subject well at stabilized rates for a minimum time
period of 72 hours. A deliverability test shall be conducted under normal and
usual operating conditions using the normal and usual operating equipment in
place on the well being tested, and the well shall be produced against the
normal and usual line pressure prevailing in the line into which the well
produces. The average daily producing rate for each 24-hour period, the
wellhead pressure before the commencement of the 72-hour test, and the flowing
wellhead pressure at the beginning of each 24-hour period shall be recorded. In
addition, a 24-hour shut-in wellhead pressure shall be determined either within
the six-month period prior to the commencement of the 72-hour deliverability
test or immediately after the completion of the deliverability test. The
shut-in wellhead pressure that was determined and the date on which the 24-hour
test was commenced shall be recorded on Form G-10. Exceptions and extensions to
the timing requirements for deliverability tests and shut-in wellhead pressure
tests may be granted by the Commission for good cause. The flow rate during
each day of the first 48 hours of the test must be as close as possible to the
flow rate during the final 24 hours of the test, but must equal at least 75% of
such flow rate. The deliverability of the well during the last 24 hours of the
flow test shall be used for allowable and allocation purposes. If pipeline
conditions exist such that a producer believes a representative deliverability
test cannot be performed, the producer with pipeline notification may request
in writing that the Commission use either of the following as the
deliverability of record:
(1) the
deliverability test performed during the previous testing period; or
(2) the maximum daily production from any of
the 12 months prior to the due date of the test as determined by dividing the
highest monthly production by the number of days in that month.
(d) After the initial
deliverability test, an operator may elect not to perform and/or file a
subsequent deliverability test for a well. In those cases, the Commission shall
use the lesser of the following as the deliverability of record for the purpose
of this section:
(1) the results of the most
recent deliverability test on file with the Commission; or
(2) the maximum daily production from any of
the 12 months prior to the due date of the test as determined by dividing the
highest monthly production by the number of days in that month.
(e) Notwithstanding subsection (d)
of this section, a deliverability test must be performed on a well in
accordance with this section:
(1) at initial
completion of the well;
(2) at
recompletion of the well into a different regulatory field;
(3) at reclassification of the well from oil
to gas;
(4) when the well is an
inactive well as defined in §
3.15 of this title (relating to
Surface Equipment Removal Requirements and Inactive Wells) and the operator
resumes production from the well;
(5) when the well is completed in a
regulatory field where the allocation formula is based in whole or in part on
the downhole pressure of the well, and that allocation formula is not
suspended;
(6) when necessary to
reinstate an allowable; or
(7) when
required by Commission order, special field rule, or other Commission
rule.
(f) If the
deliverability of a well changes after a test is reported to the Commission,
the deliverability of record for a well will be decreased upon receipt of a
written request from the operator to reduce the deliverability of record to a
specified amount. If the deliverability of a well increases, a retest must be
conducted in the manner specified in this section and must be reported on Form
G-10 before the deliverability of record will be increased.
(g) First purchasers with packages of gas
dedicated entirely to a downstream purchaser shall coordinate testing with and
provide test results to that downstream purchaser if requested by the
downstream purchaser. In these cases, the downstream purchaser upon request to
the operator shall have the right to witness all deliverability tests and
retests.
(h) Tests of wells
connected to a pipeline shall be made in a manner that no gas is flared,
vented, or otherwise wastefully used.
Notes
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