Definitions

377.19

Definitions.

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As used in ss. 377.06, 377.07, and 377.10-377.40, the term:

(1)

“Completion date” means the day, month, and year that a new productive well, a previously shut-in well, or a temporarily abandoned well is completed, repaired, or recompleted and the operator begins producing oil or gas in commercial quantities.

(2)

“Department” means the Department of Environmental Protection.

(3)

“Division” means the Division of Resource Management of the Department of Environmental Protection.

(4)

“Field” means the general area that is underlaid, or appears to be underlaid, by at least one pool. The term includes the underground reservoir, or reservoirs, containing oil or gas, or both. The terms “field” and “pool” mean the same thing if only one underground reservoir is involved; however, the term “field,” unlike the term “pool,” may relate to two or more pools.

(5)

“Gas” means all natural gas, including casinghead gas, and all other hydrocarbons not defined as oil in subsection (15).

(6)

“Horizontal well” means a well completed with the wellbore in a horizontal or nearly horizontal orientation within 10 degrees of horizontal within the producing formation.

(7)

“Illegal gas” means gas that has been produced within the state from any well or wells in excess of the amount allowed by any rule, regulation, or order of the division, as distinguished from gas produced within the State of Florida from a well not producing in excess of the amount so allowed, which is “legal gas.”

(8)

“Illegal oil” means oil that has been produced within the state from any well or wells in excess of the amount allowed by rule, regulation, or order of the division, as distinguished from oil produced within the state from a well not producing in excess of the amount so allowed, which is “legal oil.”

(9)

“Illegal product” means a product of oil or gas, any part of which was processed or derived, in whole or in part, from illegal gas or illegal oil or from any product thereof, as distinguished from “legal product,” which is a product processed or derived to no extent from illegal oil or illegal gas.

(10)

“Lateral storage reservoir boundary” means the projection up to the land surface of the maximum horizontal extent of the gas volume contained in a natural gas storage reservoir.

(11)

“Native gas” means gas that occurs naturally within this state and does not include gas produced outside the state, transported to this state, and injected into a permitted natural gas storage facility.

(12)

“Natural gas storage facility” means an underground reservoir from which oil or gas has previously been produced and which is used or to be used for the underground storage of natural gas, and any surface or subsurface structure, or infrastructure, except wells. The term also includes a right or appurtenance necessary or useful in the operation of the facility for the underground storage of natural gas, including any necessary or reasonable reservoir protective area as designated for the purpose of ensuring the safe operation of the storage of natural gas or protecting the natural gas storage facility from pollution, invasion, escape, or migration of gas, or any subsequent extension thereof. The term does not mean a transmission, distribution, or gathering pipeline or system that is not used primarily as integral piping for a natural gas storage facility.

(13)

“Natural gas storage reservoir” means a pool or field from which gas or oil has previously been produced and which is suitable for or capable of being made suitable for the injection, storage, and recovery of gas, as identified in a permit application submitted to the department under s. 377.2407.

(14)

“New field well” means an oil or gas well completed after July 1, 1997, in a new field as designated by the Department of Environmental Protection.

(15)

“Oil” means crude petroleum oil and other hydrocarbons, regardless of gravity, which are produced at the well in liquid form by ordinary production methods, and which are not the result of condensation of gas after it leaves the reservoir.

(16)

“Oil and gas” has the same meaning as the term “oil or gas.”

(17)

“Oil and gas administrator” means the State Geologist.

(18)

“Operator” means the entity who:

(a)

Has the right to drill and to produce a well; or

(b)

As part of a natural gas storage facility, injects, or is engaged in the work of preparing to inject, gas into a natural gas storage reservoir; or stores gas in, or removes gas from, a natural gas storage reservoir.

(19)

“Owner” means the person who has the right to drill into and to produce from any pool and to appropriate the production for the person or for the person and another, or others.

(20)

“Person” means a natural person, corporation, association, partnership, receiver, trustee, guardian, executor, administrator, fiduciary, or representative of any kind.

(21)

“Pool” means an underground reservoir containing or appearing to contain a common accumulation of oil or gas or both. Each zone of a general structure which is completely separated from any other zone on the structure is considered a separate pool as used herein.

(22)

“Producer” means the owner or operator of a well or wells capable of producing oil or gas, or both.

(23)

“Product” means a commodity made from oil or gas and includes refined crude oil, crude tops, topped 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, naphtha, distillate, condensate, gasoline, waste oil, kerosene, benzine, wash oil, blended gasoline, lubricating oil, blends or mixtures of oil with one or more liquid products or byproducts derived from oil or gas, and blends or mixtures of two or more liquid products or byproducts derived from oil or gas, whether hereinabove enumerated or not.

(24)

“Reasonable market demand” means the amount of oil reasonably needed for current consumption, together with a reasonable amount of oil for storage and working stocks.

(25)

“Reservoir protective area” means the area extending up to and including 2,000 feet surrounding a natural gas storage reservoir.

(26)

“Shut-in bottom hole pressure” means the pressure at the bottom of a well when all valves are closed and no oil or gas has been allowed to escape for at least 24 hours.

(27)

“Shut-in well” means an oil or gas well that has been taken out of service for economic reasons or mechanical repairs.

(28)

“State” means the State of Florida.

(29)

“Temporarily abandoned well” means a permitted well or wellbore that has been abandoned by plugging in a manner that allows reentry and redevelopment in accordance with oil or gas rules of the Department of Environmental Protection.

(30)

“Tender” means a permit or certificate of clearance for the transportation or the delivery of oil, gas, or products, approved and issued or registered under the authority of the division.

(31)

“Waste,” in addition to its ordinary meaning, means “physical waste” as that term is generally understood in the oil and gas industry. The term “waste” includes:

(a)

The inefficient, excessive, or improper use or dissipation of reservoir energy; and the locating, spacing, drilling, equipping, operating, or producing of any oil or gas well or wells in a manner that results, or tends to result, in reducing the quantity of oil or gas ultimately to be stored or recovered from any pool in this state.

(b)

The inefficient storing of oil; and the locating, spacing, drilling, equipping, operating, or producing of any oil or gas well or wells in a manner that causes, or tends to cause, unnecessary or excessive surface loss or destruction of oil or gas.

(c)

The producing of oil or gas in a manner that causes unnecessary water channeling or coning.

(d)

The operation of any oil well or wells with an inefficient gas-oil ratio.

(e)

The drowning with water of any stratum or part thereof capable of producing oil or gas.

(f)

The underground waste, however caused and whether or not defined.

(g)

The creation of unnecessary fire hazards.

(h)

The escape into the open air, from a well producing both oil and gas, of gas in excess of the amount that is necessary in the efficient drilling or operation of the well.

(i)

The use of gas for the manufacture of carbon black.

(j)

Permitting gas produced from a gas well to escape into the air.

(k)

The abuse of the correlative rights and opportunities of each owner of oil and gas in a common reservoir due to nonuniform, disproportionate, and unratable withdrawals, causing undue drainage between tracts of land.

(32)

“Well site” means the general area around a well, which area has been disturbed from its natural or existing condition, as well as the drilling or production pad, mud and water circulation pits, and other operation areas necessary to drill for or produce oil or gas, or to inject gas into and recover gas from a natural gas storage facility.

History.

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s. 14, ch. 22819, 1945; ss. 25, 35, ch. 69-106; s. 138, ch. 71-377; s. 1, ch. 76-104; s. 1, ch. 77-174; s. 67, ch. 79-65; s. 1, ch. 94-193; s. 309, ch. 94-356; s. 1021, ch. 95-148; s. 74, ch. 96-323; s. 7, ch. 2013-205.