§ 23-0501 Well permits
§ 23-0503 Well spacing in oil and natural gas pools and fields

Terms Used In New York Laws > Environmental Conservation > Article 23 > Title 5 - Well Permits and Well Spacing in Oil and Natural Gas Pools and Fields

  • Arbitration administrator: means an entity designated by the superintendent of financial services to administer the arbitration of disputes pursuant to this article. See N.Y. Civil Practice Law and Rules 7550
  • Department: means the department of environmental conservation. See N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law 23-0101
  • Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
  • Field: means the general area underlaid by one or more pools. See N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law 23-0101
  • Gas: means all natural, manufactured, mixed, and byproduct gas, and all other hydrocarbons not defined as oil in this section. See N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law 23-0101
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
  • Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
  • Oil: means crude petroleum oil and all other hydrocarbons, regardless of gravity, that are produced at the wellhead in liquid form by ordinary production methods and that are not the result of condensation of gas. See N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law 23-0101
  • Owner: means the person who has the right to drill into and produce from a pool or a salt deposit and to appropriate the oil, gas or salt he produces either for himself or others, or for himself and others. See N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law 23-0101
  • Person: means and includes any natural person, corporation, association, partnership, receiver, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary, or other representative of any kind, and includes any department, agency or instrumentality of the state or any of its governmental subdivisions. See N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law 23-0101
  • Pool: means an underground reservoir containing a common accumulation of oil or gas or both; each zone of a structure which is completely separated from any other zone in the same structure is a pool. See N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law 23-0101
  • Product: means any commodity made from oil or gas and includes refined crude oil, crude tops, topped crude, processed crude, processed crude petroleum, residue from crude petroleum, cracking stock, uncracked fuel oil, fuel oil, treated crude oil, residuum, gas oil, casinghead gasoline, natural-gas gasoline, kerosene, benzine, wash oil, waste oil, blended gasoline, lubricating oil, blends or mixtures of oil with one or more liquid products or by-products derived from oil or gas, and blends or mixtures of two or more liquid products or by-products derived from oil or gas, whether herein enumerated or not. See N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law 23-0101
  • Statewide spacing: means spacing units for gas or oil wells that are within ten percent of the following sizes, as applicable, unless another percentage is specifically stated:
    (i) For Medina gas pools at any depth, 40 acres with the wellbore within the target formation no less than 460 feet from any unit boundary, plus, if applicable, the number of additional acres necessary and sufficient to ensure that any horizontal wellbore within the target formation is not less than 460 feet from any unit boundary;
    (ii) For Onondaga reef or Oriskany gas pools at any depth, 160 acres with the wellbore within the target formation no less than 660 feet from any unit boundary, plus, if applicable, the number of additional acres necessary and sufficient to ensure that any horizontal wellbore within the target formation is not less than 660 feet from any unit boundary;
    (iii) For fault-bounded Trenton and/or Black River hydrothermal dolomite gas pools where the majority of the pool is between 4,000 and 8,000 feet deep, 320 acres with the proposed productive section of the wellbore within the target formation no less than one-half mile from any other well in another unit in the same pool and no less than 1,000 feet from any unit boundary that is not defined by a field-bounding fault but in no event less than 660 feet from any unit boundary;
    (iv) For fault-bounded Trenton and/or Black River hydrothermal dolomite gas pools where the majority of the pool is below 8,000 feet, within five percent of 640 acres with the proposed productive section of the wellbore within the target formation no less than one mile from any other well in another unit in the same pool and no less than 1,500 feet from any unit boundary that is not defined by a field-bounding fault but in no event less than 660 feet from any unit boundary;
    (v) For shale gas pools at any depth, for a vertical well outside any existing spacing unit for the same formation, 40 acres with the wellbore within the target formation no less than 460 feet from any unit boundary;
    (vi) For shale gas pools at any depth, for a horizontal well outside any existing spacing unit for the same formation and with a written commitment from the well operator to drill infill wells pursuant to subdivision 4 of section 23-0503 of this title, with all horizontal infill wells in the unit to be drilled from a common well pad within three years of the date the first well in the unit commences drilling, notwithstanding the ten percent tolerance specified in this subparagraph, up to 640 acres with the initial horizontal wellbore or wellbores within the target formation approximately centered in the spacing unit and no wellbore in the target formation less than 330 feet from any unit boundary;
    (vii) For shale gas pools at any depth, for a horizontal well outside any existing spacing unit for the same formation and in the absence of a written commitment from the well operator to drill infill wells pursuant to subdivision 4 of section 23-0503 of this title, 40 acres with the wellbore within the target formation no less than 330 feet from any unit boundary plus the number of additional acres necessary and sufficient to ensure that the wellbore within the target formation is not less than 330 feet from any unit boundary;
    (viii) For all other gas pools where the majority of the pool is above the depth of 4,000 feet, 80 acres with the wellbore within the target formation no less than 460 feet from any unit boundary, plus, if applicable, the number of additional acres necessary and sufficient to ensure that any horizontal wellbore within the target formation is not less than 460 feet from any unit boundary;
    (ix) For all other gas pools where the majority of the pool is 4,000 to 6,000 feet deep, 160 acres with the wellbore within the target formation no less than 660 feet from any unit boundary, plus, if applicable, the number of additional acres necessary and sufficient to ensure that any horizontal wellbore within the target formation is not less than 660 feet from any unit boundary;
    (x) For all other gas pools where the majority of the pool is 6,000 to 8,000 feet deep, 320 acres with the wellbore within the target formation no less than 1,000 feet from any unit boundary, plus, if applicable, the number of additional acres necessary and sufficient to ensure that any horizontal wellbore within the target formation is not less than 1,000 feet from any unit boundary;
    (xi) For all other gas pools where the majority of the pool is below 8,000 feet, within five percent of 640 acres with the wellbore within the target formation no less than 1,500 feet from any unit boundary, plus, if applicable, the number of additional acres necessary and sufficient to ensure that any horizontal wellbore within the target formation is not less than 1,500 feet from any unit boundary;
    (xii) For oil pools in the Bass Island, Trenton, Black River, Onondaga reef or other oil-bearing reefs at any depth, 40 acres with the wellbore within the target formation no less than 460 feet from any unit boundary, plus, if applicable, the number of additional acres necessary and sufficient to ensure that any horizontal wellbore within the target formation is not less than 460 feet from any unit boundary; and
    (xiii) For all other oil pools at any depth, the wellbore within the target formation shall be no less than 165 feet from any lease boundary. See N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law 23-0501
  • Well operator: means the applicant for a permit to drill, deepen, plug back or convert a well subject to this title and titles 7 and 9 of this article, or the actual operator of the well if the well is not operated by the original applicant. See N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law 23-0501
  • well permit: means a permit to drill, deepen, plug back or convert a well for production of oil or gas. See N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law 23-0501