§ 78.403. Gas storage well integrity testing.
(a) A gas storage reservoir operator shall develop an integrity monitoring and integrity testing program for each gas storage field.
(b) A gas storage reservoir operator shall test the integrity of each gas storage well at least once every 5 years. By June 15, 1995, each gas storage operator shall submit, for Department approval, an integrity testing plan for each gas storage field.
(c) The testing program may consist of geophysical well logging, pressure testing or other procedures approved by the Department. The testing program shall indicate a well’s integrity, whether there has been gas loss in quantities in excess of those amounts in § 78.402(d) (relating to inspections by the gas storage operator), and whether there is a well condition that requires reconditioning, plugging or other remedial action.
(d) Gas storage field monitoring may consist of annular and tubing pressure monitoring, reservoir engineering evaluation in the form of pressure/volume inventory studies, gauge calibration programs, wellsite inspection programs, casing inspection programs, pressure and flow testing programs, internal and external inventory auditing programs or a combination of monitoring procedures approved by the Department that verify the gas storage reservoir’s integrity.
(e) The gas storage reservoir operator shall retain the information gathered in subsections (a)—(d) and shall make the information available to the Department for 15 years.
(f) For an observation well for which a gas storage operator does not retain monitoring data, the gas storage operator shall plug the well or apply for inactive status.
(g) The Department may require the operator to perform additional tests it deems necessary after a conference is held under section 501 of the act (58 P. S. § 601.501).
Cross References This section cited in 25 Pa. Code § 78.406 (relating to recordkeeping).
No part of the information on this site may be reproduced for profit or sold for profit.
This material has been drawn directly from the official Pennsylvania Code full text database. Due to the limitations of HTML or differences in display capabilities of different browsers, this version may differ slightly from the official printed version.
