§ 28-12-103 — 30-5-104. Oil and gas conservation commission; powers and duties; investigations; rules and regulations

(a) The Wyoming oil and gas conservation commission,
herein called "the commission," has jurisdiction and authority
over all persons and property, public and private, necessary to
effectuate the purposes and intent of this act, including the
authority to set, assess and collect reasonable fees as provided
in this subsection. The fees authorized under this subsection
shall be set in accordance with the following:
(i) Fees shall be established by rule or regulation
promulgated in accordance with the Wyoming Administrative
Procedure Act;
(ii) Fees shall be established in an amount to ensure
that, to the extent practicable, the total revenue generated
from the fees collected approximates, but does not exceed, the
direct and indirect costs of the administrative activity
associated with the fee;
(iii) The commission shall maintain records
sufficient to support the fees charged;
(iv) Fees may be imposed only for:
(A) Applications for commission or examiner
hearings and for continuances of those hearings;
(B) Applications for administrative approval;
(C) Applications for permits to drill oil and
gas wells;
(D) Applications for stratigraphic tests or core
holes;
(E) Injection wells subject to the environmental
protection agency underground injection control program
administered by the commission.
(b) The commission has authority and it is its duty to
make investigations to determine whether waste exists or is
imminent, or whether other facts exist, which justify or require
action by it hereunder. The commission is authorized to enter
orders following any investigatory hearings if properly noticed
to operators, producers and processors under the provisions of
the Wyoming Administrative Procedure Act and rules of the
commission.
(c) The commission shall make rules, regulations, and
orders, and shall take other appropriate action, to effectuate
the purposes and intent of this act.
(d) The commission has authority:
(i) To require:
(A) Identification of ownership of wells,
producing leases, tanks, plants and drilling structures;
(B) The making and filing of reports, well logs,
and directional surveys; provided, however, that logs of
exploratory or "wildcat" wells marked confidential shall be kept
confidential for six (6) months after the filing thereof, unless
the owner gives written permission to release such logs at an
earlier date;
(C) The drilling, casing, and plugging of wells
in such manner as to prevent the escape of oil or gas out of one
(1) stratum into another, the intrusion of water into an oil and
gas stratum, the pollution of fresh water supplies by oil, gas,
or salt water, and to prevent blowouts, cavings, seepages, and
fires;
(D) The furnishing of a surety bond or other
guaranty, conditioned for or securing the performance of the
duty to plug each dry or abandoned well or the repair of wells
causing waste and compliance with the rules and orders of the
commission;
(E) The operation of wells with efficient
gas-oil and water-oil ratios, and to fix these ratios;
(F) Gauging or other measuring of oil and gas to
determine the quantity and quality thereof;
(G) That every person who produces oil or gas in
this state shall keep and maintain for a period of five (5)
years within this state complete and accurate record of the
quantities thereof, which records or certified copies thereof
shall be available for examination by the commission or its
agents at all reasonable times;
(H) The payment of reasonable fees authorized
under this article.
(ii) To regulate, for conservation purposes:
(A) The drilling, producing, and plugging of
wells;
(B) The shooting and chemical treatment of
wells;
(C) The spacing of wells;
(D) Disposal of salt water, nonpotable water,
drilling fluids and other oil-field wastes which are uniquely
associated with exploration and production operations;
(E) The contamination or waste of underground
water;
(F) All aspects of oil mining operations
provided that nothing herein shall limit the authority of state
mining inspector. "Oil mining operations" means operations
associated with the production of oil or gas from reservoir
access holes drilled from underground shafts or tunnels.
(iii) To classify wells as oil or gas wells for
purposes material to the interpretation or enforcement of this
act, to make the determination of wells required by the Natural
Gas Pricing Policy Act of 1978 [Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978],
Public Law 95-621 and to make any other determination of wells
that be required by the United States department of energy;
(iv) When required, in order to protect correlative
rights, to establish drilling units affording each owner an
opportunity to drill for and produce as a prudent operator, and
so far as it is reasonably practicable to do so without waste,
his just and equitable share of the oil or gas or both in the
pool and to restrict or limit the production of oil or gas from
any well which is allowed, after the effective date of this act,
as an exception to the location requirements of or as an
additional well permitted under any order of the commission
establishing drilling units for a pool or part thereof or of any
general well spacing rule or order adopted by the commission for
conservation purposes, upon such terms and conditions as the
commission may determine, upon the commission's own motion or
upon application of any interested person and after notice and
hearing as provided by chapter 6, Wyoming Statutes 1957, as
amended, and by the commission's rules;
(v) To adopt rules and regulations to:
(A) Regulate the plugging, sealing or capping of
seismic shot holes, and to require, and fix the amount of, a
surety bond or other guaranty to ensure compliance with
regulations governing all geophysical operations and to ensure
compliance with W.S. 30-5-401 through 30-5-410. When oil and gas
operations as defined in W.S. 30-5-401(a)(iv) involve seismic
activities, the rules shall require a surety or other guaranty
which is sufficient to protect and for the purpose of addressing
the interests of the surface owners affected by the activities
and which, in all events, shall be in an amount of not less than
five thousand dollars ($5,000.00) for the first one thousand
(1,000) acres or portion thereof per surface owner for which
access is sought for seismic activities and not less than one
thousand dollars ($1,000.00) for each additional one thousand
(1,000) acres or portion thereof per surface owner for which
access is sought for seismic activities. For the purpose of
assuring compliance with this minimum bonding requirement, the
commission may pool parcels of land of different surface owners
where no single parcel exceeds forty (40) acres;
(B) Require an applicant to certify that all
underground electrical conductors outside of its facilities,
fenced enclosures or posted areas comply with the national
electric code; and
(C) Require an operator to install and maintain
all electrical equipment located in and around an oil and gas
well to comply with the national electrical code.
(vi) To regulate, excluding discharges permitted
under the national pollutant discharge elimination system, the:
(A) Location, construction, operation and
reclamation of all noncommercial reserve pits and produced water
retention and emergency overflow pits used solely for the
storage, treatment and disposal of drilling fluids, produced
waters, emergency overflow wastes or other oil field wastes
associated with the maintenance and operation of oil and gas
exploration and production wells in such a manner as to prevent
the contamination of the waters of the state;
(B) Underground disposal into Class two
injection wells as defined under the federal Safe Drinking Water
Act of salt water, nonpotable water and oil field wastes related
to oil and gas production in such a manner as to prevent
contamination of the waters of the state.
(vii) To use funds collected under W.S. 30-5-116(b)
to plug wells and seismic holes and reclaim the surrounding area
affected by them, if the commission is unable to enforce its
regulations and laws requiring the owner, seismic contractor or
hole plugger to plug and reclaim and if the owner, seismic
contractor or hole plugger does not have an adequate surety bond
or other guaranty to cover the cost of plugging and reclamation.
Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to create any
liability by the state for failure to adequately plug or reclaim
wells or holes. If oil field equipment appears to have been
abandoned in the area of a well or hole which is plugged or
reclaimed under this paragraph, the commission may, after notice
and a hearing as provided in W.S. 30-5-105 and 30-5-106 and a
finding that the equipment is abandoned, dispose of the
equipment. The commission may dispose of the equipment by public
sale or by transferring it to the contractor who performs the
plugging and reclamation for the commission. The transfer or
proceeds of the sale shall be used to defray the cost of
plugging or reclamation. The commission shall promulgate rules
to implement this paragraph;
(viii) To issue orders allowing the unitization of
pore space associated with geologic sequestration sites pursuant
to W.S. 35-11-314 through 35-11-320 and adopt such rules and
regulations as necessary to effectuate the purposes of W.S. 35-
11-314;
(ix) To issue orders pursuant to W.S. 30-5-110
allowing the unitization of oil and gas interests with
consenting coal interests that are actually consumed as a direct
result of well and reservoir injections to restore or enhance
the microbial conversion of hydrocarbon substrates to methane
gas;
(x) After notice and hearing, to order wells shut in
and sealed and to prohibit drilling upon written notice from the
department of revenue that an owner or operator owes taxes that
are more than one hundred twenty (120) days delinquent under
W.S. 39-13-113 or 39-14-207(a)(iv) or (v). The commission shall
remove any regulation of shutting in or sealing wells or
prohibition on drilling issued under this paragraph upon written
notice from the department of revenue that the delinquent unpaid
taxes have been paid.
(e) The commission shall not require that filings with the
commission be signed or stamped by a registered professional
engineer.