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Amended Permit to Drill Applications (MD-10-R-A)

 Pursuant to Act No. 342 of the 2016 Regular Session, Form SOCI will be required for all operator change amendments submitted 8/1/16 and thereafter. Please read below under "Operator" for more information. 

An amended Permit to Drill is accomplished by submitting the MD-10-R-A application (historically called "pink card"). It is used to amend information on the well, such as changes in the Parish, Field, Operator, Well Name (Lease to Lease, Lease to Unit, Unit to Lease or Unit to Unit), Well Number, Well Location, and conversion to a Salt Water Disposal well.

Lease Well or Commissioner's Unit Well to Voluntary Unit Well

A completed MD-10-R-A signed by a company official.

A plat showing:

  1. The seal, signature, scale and dated less than a year old.
    • If there is no change in location, these requirements are not necessary.
  2. The Voluntary Unit Outline.
  3. The Voluntary Unit name.
    • Designated as VUA, VUB, VUC, etc. Voluntary Unites are labelled in an alpha-sequential method specific to operator and field. If the Voluntary Unit Agreement is sand specific, then the sand abbreviation is included in the unit nomenclature, such as: PET VUA, HOSS VUB, WX VUC, 10400 VUD, etc.
  4. The distance of the well to the unit boundaries

A Voluntary Unit Affidavit must contain the following statements:

  1. The name and position of the person making the statement
  2. Well name, number & serial number
  3. The voluntary unit agreement has been executed by 100% of the interested parties
  4. The voluntary unit agreement has been filed with the Clerk of Court
  5. The effective date of the agreement
  6. The unit is currently in effect
  7. If a depth interval is specified in the agreement it must be stated in the affidavit or shown on the accompanying plat
  8. A statement that the BHL is in compliance with Statewide Order 29-E

The well spacing to any unit boundary must conform to the rules of Statewide Order 29-E, being more than 330 feet.

The proposed sand can not be affected by a Commissioner's Unit which has established rules for the reservoir and takes precedence.

The application fee is found on the Rules and Rulemaking/Feeswebpage as Statewide Order 29-R-Start Year/End Year.

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Parish, Field, Well Name, Well Location

A completed MD-10-R-A signed by a company official.

A well plat prepared by a Louisiana Land Surveyor:

  1. With seal, signature, scale and dated less than a year old.
  2. The well with its surface location description and bottom-hole location description (if applicable).

All cross unit wells require as-drilled location amendments to confirm percentages assigned to each unit. The plats for as-drilled cross unit wells must include:

  1. Unit corner coordinates. The unit corner coordinates should reflect the unit survey plat (if available).
  2. Length of perforated lateral within each unit.

The application fee is found on the Rules and Rulemaking/Fees webpage as Statewide Order 29-R-Start Year/End Year.

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Operator

A completed MD-10-R-A-1 (see Engineering Forms page) signed by a company official of the proposed operator and a company official of the proposed former operator.

In the case of multiple wells in the same Field, the MD-10-R-AO (blue sheet; see Engineering Forms page) is recommended.

Form SOCI is required for all operator changes submitted 8/1/16 and thereafter. This form provides the surface owner and contact information of wells included in operator change amendments. Per Act 342 of the 2016 Regular Session, "surface owner" is described as the person shown in the assessor's rolls of the parish as the current owner of the surface rights for the land on which the well site is located. One form (with supplemental pages, if necessary) is required per surface owner, and all wells included in an operator change must be listed on a Form SOCI.

The per-serial number application fee is found on the Rules and Rulemaking/Fees webpage as Statewide Order 29-R-Start Year/End Year.

>> Incapable gas and stripper oil serial numbers pay a reduced rate. To determine if a well qualifies, follow these steps:

  1. Start at SONRIS.com, then select Data Portal.
  2. Select "Well Information" > "Well Information Details by Operator (OJC)" IDR
  3. Enter the field code and operator ID of existing well operator, select "Active," then execute.
  4. Incapable Gas wells will have “12” in the “RPT Ind” column. Stripper Oil wells are “14.”

Orphan Wells
All Operator changes for orphan wells (Status 23/26) must be submitted with the Orphan Well Affidavit.

  • Orphan wells are exempt from the operator change fee.
  • Effective date of orphan operator changes should not precede orphan date.

Revert to Landowner
Wells reverting to landowner must file an operator change form with a Landowner Use Affidavit.

  • Wells reverting to landowners are exempt from the operator change fee.
  • Landowners will not file for an operator code via the OR-1; an operator code will be assigned once the application is received in Baton Rouge.
  • Wells reverting to landowners are subject to the financial security requirements.

Operator Change Review Criteria

All operator changes are subject to the financial security rules.

The status of an operator is reviewed. Pending Compliance Orders and/or Civil Penalties may delay processing of amendments.

If there are orphan wells within the lease area, the proposed operator may have to acquire those wells also.

NOTE - if acquiring all wells in a Field from an existing operator, use this search function to view all active serial numbers. These serial numbers (except well status 03, 28, 29, 30, 82, and 90) should be included on the MD-10-R-AO.