| (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 §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 §3.53(a)(2) 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.
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| Source Note: The provisions of this §3.52 adopted to be effective January 1, 1976; amended to be effective May 1, 1991, 16 TexReg 2095; amended to be effective February 18, 1994, 19 TexReg 783; amended to be effective February 13, 1997, 22 TexReg 1313; amended to be effective January 10, 2000, 25 TexReg 79; amended to be effective November 24, 2004, 29 TexReg 10728; amended to be effective February 1, 2016, 41 TexReg 785 |
