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 on a lease, unit or communitized area in such a manner as to prevent the contamination of the waters of the state;

(B) The noncommercial 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 35-11-317 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.

(e) The commission shall not require that filings with the commission be signed or stamped by a registered professional engineer.