Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ann Ticopa on January 31, 2015 at 5:03pm

First, my use of the quote marks ("temporary plugging" ) was not meant to indicate a literal quote.  It was my identifier for the state.

However, there is the following definition in Act 223, Title 58:

"Inactivate."  To shut off the vertical movement of gas in a gas storage well by means of a temporary plug or other suitable device or by injecting bentonitic mud or other such equally nonporous material into the well.

Permalink Reply by Jack Young on February 1, 2015 at 3:35am

While the words are similar, what's described elsewhere in the PA Code as an inactive well isn't a gas storage well that's been "inactivated". That's something entirely different. An inactive well is a self-determined regulatory status that merely means that a well has been shut in and is not in active operation - the valve has been closed. Nothing more. Most "inactive wells" don't have plugs in them. I'm sure you can get someone at the DEP to explain all this if you call them.

Permalink Reply by Ann Ticopa on February 1, 2015 at 4:09am

Jack wrote: "Wells are either active, inactive or plugged."

The PA DEP online Report generating application(s) lists the following value choices for Well Status:

Abandoned, Active, DEP Abandoned List, DEP Orphan List, DEP Plugged, Inactive, Operator Reported Not Drilled, Plugged OG Well, Proposed But Never Materialized, Reclamation Complete, or/and Regulatory Inactive Status.
        

Permalink Reply by Jack Young on February 1, 2015 at 4:55am

Exactly, those are the only three types of wells any operator will ever have - the other categories you mentioned either are no longer wells (DEP plugged), were never wells (Operator Reported Not Drilled and Proposed But Never Materialized), or haven't been registered by any operator. (Abandoned, DEP Abandoned List). I'm not sure what you're trying to do here. This isn't helping anyone understand the business better!

Permalink Reply by Ann Ticopa on February 1, 2015 at 6:14am

Your response is gibberish.  Again, the DEP recognizes eleven values for Well Status, not only the three you know about.

,.

Permalink Reply by Jack Young on February 1, 2015 at 9:37am

Why not just acknowledge that you didn't fully understand how this all works and move on - it's important to know when you're wrong so you can cut your losses. I'm happy to spend time helping people understand the system, but I'm not prepared to waste my time (and that of others) debating things that aren't open to interpretation. You have no experience in the industry and I have 30 + years. Trying to score points on me by claiming that a well "not drilled" is a kind of well seems pretty childish.  

Permalink Reply by Ann Ticopa on February 1, 2015 at 12:57pm

But I have moved on ... to "how this all works",  now, in 2015, under the terms of Act 13.

"Operator Reported Not Drilled" is a valid DEP Well Status value copy/pasted from the DEP website.

Permalink Reply by Jack Young on February 2, 2015 at 2:36am

What is it that makes people write nonsense when they can't acknowledge a mistake. You don't have to know anything about the business to know that a well not drilled isn't a description of a well - you really are a bad loser, aren't you!

Permalink Reply by Ann Ticopa on February 2, 2015 at 4:30am

Act 13 of 2012—Implementation of Unconventional Gas Well Impact Fee Act; PA PUC Docket Number M-2012-2288561
Clarification Order Regarding Chapter 23 - December 20, 2012

"DEP is the agency primarily responsible for implementing Chapter 32 of Act 13, which sets forth the permitting, financial responsibility, drilling, casing, reporting, plugging, and site restoration requirements for oil and gas wells. See DEP Comments at 1. Section 3211(f) of Act 13, 58 Pa.C.S. § 3211(f), requires operators to provide DEP with notice of the date that drilling will commence. Id. According to their comments, DEP interprets the date of drilling, or ''spud date,'' as the date when ''the drilling bit penetrates the surface of the land or when conductor pipe is begun to be set by being driven into the ground.'' Id. (emphasis added). Setting conductor pipe is one of the first steps in well construction. Id. ..."

http://www.pabulletin.com/secure/data/vol43/43-1/32.html

Permalink Reply by Jack Young on January 31, 2015 at 3:14pm

Having plugged scores of wells ourselves over the years, an operator typically plugs a well for one of the following reasons: 1) it's been completed and produced, but is no longer able to produce enough oil and gas to pay the bills 2) it was drilled, but didn't show enough potential to complete and attempt to produce, or 3) the well has some technical problem that makes production impossible (a bad cement job, tools down the hole or whatever). If you drill a well and think it has potential, but either there's no pipeline nearby, prices are low or you aren't ready to complete the well for some other reason, you put it into inactive status.

Permalink Reply by Jack Young on January 31, 2015 at 3:28pm

Just checked PA-IRIS, and I can see what Talisman was doing. Those wells were all initially just top-holed - they drilled only 60 to 100 feet on each just to hold a lease. At some point they must have decided that they weren't going to get far with this approach since it requires additional follow-up work to be done fairly quickly to be legitimate, so they plugged these shallow holes and moved on. (Which is very easy to do when wells don't get below the fresh water zones.) These "plugged" wells were never real wells to begin with - just shallow holes in the ground. The casing is still there and the holes are merely filled with gravel, so they could be drilled out and work resumed easily. (With a new drilling permit.) But there was really never a well there in the first place, just a bit of surface casing set.

I wouldn't consider these wells either a positive or a negative for the areas they're in. Drilling the first 100 feet of a well like this gives no geologic data, so plugging that hole doesn't say anything about potential of the specific location, just the company's overall developmental priorities at that time. They are "plugged wells" by definition, but the part of that which is only strictly true isn't the plugged bit, it's the idea that they were ever actual gas wells.

Permalink Reply by Frank Walker on January 31, 2015 at 3:36pm

Jack, that's the best explanation I've ever seen for what I'm dealing with personally.  Thank you so much for posting what you did.  I can totally agree with everything you wrote.  Your explanation is entirely consistent with my own situation and experience.

There's a lot of semantics involved with this "plugged" business.  I continue to believe that for a lay person like myself, use of the term "plugged" in information provided the DEP can be highly misleading, especially when "plugged" is conflated with "dead" or "unsuccessful".  But Jack, I think you have nailed this very well, indeed.  Thanks again for your help!!

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