South Carolina Code 48-43-30. Application of chapter; authority of department
(1) Prevent waste of oil and gas, to protect correlative rights and to prevent pollution of the water, air and land by oil or gas, and otherwise to administer and enforce this chapter. It has jurisdiction over all persons and property necessary for that purpose. In the event of a conflict, the duty to prevent waste is paramount.
Terms Used In South Carolina Code 48-43-30
- Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
- Board: means board of the department. See South Carolina Code 48-43-10
- Condensate: means liquid hydrocarbons that were originally in the gaseous phase in the reservoir. See South Carolina Code 48-43-10
- Department: means the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. See South Carolina Code 48-43-10
- Field: means the general area underlain by one or more pools. See South Carolina Code 48-43-10
- Gas: means all natural gas and all other fluid hydrocarbons not hereinabove defined as oil, including condensate because it originally was in the gaseous phase in the reservoir. See South Carolina Code 48-43-10
- 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
- Oil: means crude petroleum oil and all other hydrocarbons, regardless of gravity, that are produced in liquid form by ordinary production methods, but does not include liquid hydrocarbons that were originally in a gaseous phase in the reservoir. See South Carolina Code 48-43-10
- Person: means any natural person, corporation, association, partnership, receiver, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary, or other representatives of any kind, and includes any government or any political subdivision or any agency thereof. See South Carolina Code 48-43-10
- Pollution: means the act of emitting pollutants into the air or water or onto the land. See South Carolina Code 48-43-10
- Pool: means an underground reservoir containing a common accumulation of oil and gas or both; each zone of a structure that is completely separated from any other zone in the same structure is a pool. See South Carolina Code 48-43-10
- 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, lubrication 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 South Carolina Code 48-43-10
- Protect Correlative Rights: means that the action or regulation by the department should afford a reasonable opportunity to each person entitled thereto to recover or receive the oil or gas in his tract or tracts or the equivalent thereto, without being required to drill unnecessary wells or to incur other unnecessary expense to recover or receive such oil or gas or its equivalent. See South Carolina Code 48-43-10
- Sanitary landfill: means a solid waste disposal facility regulated by the Department of Health and Environmental Control. See South Carolina Code 48-43-10
- Waste: means and includes:
(1) physical waste, as that term is generally understood in the oil and gas industry;
(2) the inefficient, excessive, or improper use, or the unnecessary dissipation of, reservoir energy;
(3) the inefficient storing of oil and gas;
(4) the locating, drilling, equipping, operating, or producing of any oil or gas well in a manner that causes, or tends to cause, reduction in the quantity of oil or gas ultimately recoverable from a pool under prudent and proper operations, or that causes or tends to cause unnecessary or excessive surface loss or destruction or oil or gas;
(5) the production of oil or gas in excess of
(a) transportation or marketing facilities;
(b) the amount reasonably required to be produced in the proper drilling, completing or testing of the well from which it is produced; or
(c) oil or gas otherwise usefully utilized but gas produced from an oil well or condensate well pending the time when, with reasonable diligence, the gas can be sold or otherwise usefully utilized on terms and conditions that are just and reasonable shall not be considered waste if the production of such gas has been approved by order of the department;
(6) underground or above ground waste in the production or storage of oil, gas, or condensate, however caused, and whether or not defined in other subdivisions hereof. See South Carolina Code 48-43-10
(2) Make such investigations as it deems proper to determine whether action by the department in discharging its duties is necessary.
(3) Hire personnel to carry out the purposes of this chapter.
(B) Without limiting its general authority, the department shall have specific authority:
(1) To require:
(a) identification of ownership of oil or gas wells, producing leases, tanks, plants, structures, and facilities for the transportation or refining of oil and gas;
(b) the preparing and filing of well logs and samples, directional surveys and reports on well location, drilling and production, provided, however, that the log and samples of an exploratory or wildcat well need not be filed before one year after the completion of the well and upon the filing of the log and samples of such well the department shall keep the log and samples and information contained therein confidential for one year from the date of filing if requested by the operator in writing to do so and the department may keep the log and samples and information contained therein confidential for an additional year at its discretion if the operator requests in writing that the department keep such log and samples and information confidential for an additional year.
(c) the drilling, casing, operation, and plugging of wells in such manner as to prevent (a) the escape of oil or gas out of one pool into another, (b) the detrimental intrusion of water into an oil or gas pool that is avoidable by efficient operations, (c) the pollution of fresh water supplies by oil, gas, or salt water, and (d) blowouts, cavings, seepages, and fire;
(d) the taking of tests of oil or gas wells;
(e) the furnishing by all persons who apply for a drilling permit a reasonable performance bond with good and sufficient surety with the State of South Carolina as beneficiary to indemnify the State from loss or expense resulting from such person‘s failure to comply with the provisions of this chapter or the rules, regulations or orders of the department including the duty to plug each dry or abandoned well and to repair each well causing waste or pollution if repair will prevent waste or pollution; a performance bond may cover more than one drilling operation of the same person provided that the amount of such performance bond is increased to cover the additional well each time an application for a drilling permit is submitted to the department by that person.
(f) that the production from wells be separated into gaseous and liquid hydrocarbons, and that each be measured by means and upon standards that may be prescribed by the department;
(g) that wells not be operated with inefficient gas-oil or water-oil ratios, to fix these ratios, and to limit production from wells with inefficient gas-oil or water-oil ratios;
(h) certificates of clearance in connection with the transportation or delivery of oil, gas, or product;
(i) the metering or other measuring of oil, gas, or product;
(j) that every person who produces, sells, purchases, acquires, stores, transports, refines, or processes oil or gas in this State keep and maintain complete and accurate records of the quantities thereof, which records shall be available for examination by the department or its agents at all reasonable times;
(k) the filing of reports or plats with the department that it may prescribe;
(l) permits for the onshore and offshore exploration of oil and gas both on public and private lands whether highlands, wetlands or submerged land;
(m) the placing of meters approved by the department which shall at all times be under the supervision and control of the department wherever the department may designate on all pipelines, gathering systems, barge terminals, loading racks, refineries, or other places deemed necessary to prevent the transportation of illegally produced oil and gas;
(n) payment of reasonable fees for all publications, materials, charts, services and similar items furnished to persons at their request;
(o) that all persons who desire to drill wells for oil or gas obtain a permit from the department prior to the commencement of any drilling operations;
(p) that all pipelines placed in the Atlantic Ocean, its harbors, bays and other bodies of water which are a part of the Atlantic Ocean to transport oil, gas, condensate or product that cross the lands and under waters that are within the territorial jurisdiction of the State of South Carolina be located under the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, its harbors, bays and other bodies of water which are a part of the Atlantic Ocean so that the pipelines will not interfere with navigation, fishing, shrimping, and other lawful recreational and commercial activities.
(2) To regulate:
(a) the drilling, testing, completing, stimulating, producing, reworking and plugging of wells, and all other operations associated with the production of oil and gas;
(b) the spacing or locating of wells;
(c) operations to increase ultimate recovery, such as cycling of gas, the maintenance of pressure, and the introduction of gas, water or other substances into a producing formation;
(d) the disposal of salt water and oil-field wastes;
(e) the exploration for oil or gas in the waters and on the lands that are within the jurisdictional limits of the State regardless of ownership;
(f) the transportation of oil and gas, as defined by this chapter and as distinguished by the definitions from product, from whatever source to gathering systems, refineries, and other storage and processing facilities which handle oil and gas;
(g) the commingling of oil and gas produced from wells having different owners or producers and to adopt such rules and regulations applicable to such commingling as may be necessary to protect the rights of the owners, producers and royalty owners of the wells from which the commingling oil or gas is produced.
(3) To limit the production of oil, gas, or condensate from any field, pool, area, lease, or well, and to allocate production.
(4) To classify and reclassify pools as oil, gas and condensate pools and to classify and reclassify wells as oil, gas or condensate wells.
(5) To promulgate, after hearing and notice as hereinafter provided, such rules and regulations, and issue such orders reasonably necessary to prevent waste and oil discharges from drilling and production platforms, pipelines, gathering systems, processing facilities, storage facilities, refineries, port facilities, tankers and other facilities and vessels that may be a source of oil spills and to protect correlative rights, to govern the practice and procedure before the board and to fulfill its duties and the purposes of this chapter.
(6) To regulate the exploration, drilling, production, and transportation of methane gas in and related to sanitary landfills. The department is authorized to exercise discretion in regulating such activities and may impose any requirement of this chapter as is necessary, in the opinion of the department, to prevent waste of oil and gas, to protect correlative rights and to prevent pollution of the water, air, and land by oil and gas. The department is further authorized to require any person applying for a drilling permit or otherwise producing methane gas in a sanitary landfill to comply with one of the following requirements for financial responsibility in an amount deemed sufficient by the department in its discretion in order to achieve the purpose specified in § 48-43-30(A)(1):
(i) furnish a bond consistent with the requirements of § 48-43-30(B)(1)(e); or
(ii) furnish proof of insurance with the State of South Carolina as beneficiary. Before the issuance of drilling permits for methane gas recovery from sanitary landfills, the department must certify that the proposed activity is consistent with the Department of Health and Environmental Control regulations governing the operation, monitoring, and maintenance of the landfills and applicable permit conditions.