Permit Transfer, Amendment and Expiration

Transfers

• Completed injection/disposal well:
  • Form P-4 must be filed at least fifteen days before the proposed transfer is to take place.
  • The operator of the P-4 lease is the injection/disposal permittee. (Note: Cavern storage wells and brine mining wells require a letter of request to transfer the permit in addition to filing a Form P-4.) You may file the appropriate form and fee to have the operator name changed on an injection well permit but it is not required.
• Uncompleted injection/disposal well:
  • Completion Report: If you have become the operator of an injection/disposal well permit, but are not the operator listed on the permit, you may file a Completion Report (Form W-2/G-1) with a valid Drilling Permit (Form W-1) to become the new lease operator (Form P-4) and injection well permit operator. However, you will not receive an injection well permit with your operator name.
  • Operator Name Change: You may file the appropriate form and fee to have the operator name changed on an injection well permit when the well is on a new lease not yet created by filing a Completion Report. Permit applications to amend the operator name will not extend the permit expiration date unless all of the attachments are included as if the application was for a new well.

Amendment

• Unless otherwise provided in the permit, the well must be constructed and operated as proposed in the permit application. Changes in well construction or operation may require a permit amendment.
• Applications for amendment require the same forms and fees as new applications. (See Transfer instructions above.)
• Attachments required for amended applications are determined based on the nature and magnitude of the proposed changes. See the "Guidelines for Permit Amendments" (links below) to determine attachments required for various types of permit amendments.
  
  
  • Attachments required for Rule 9 permit amendments (disposal into non-productive formations)
  • Attachments required for Rule 46 and Rule 96 permit amendments (injection or disposal into productive formations and underground storage of gas in productive or depleted reservoirs)
  • Attachments required for Rule 81 permit amendments (brine mining injection wells)
  • Attachments required for Rule 95 and Rule 97 permit amendments (underground storage of liquid or liquefied hydrocarbons in salt formations and underground storage of gas in salt formations)
• Amendments will not extend the permit expiration date unless all of the attachments are included as if the application was for a new well.

Expiration

• Since 2010, injection/disposal well permits have had a condition that the permit will expire 3 years after the date of the permit if the well is not spud before that date.
• Permits that do not have this condition may be reviewed and, if not in use, canceled after notice to the permittee.
• A permittee may request a six-month extension to the 3-year permit expiration for good cause if the permittee has a valid drilling permit (Form W-1).
• A permittee may request to extend the permit by filing a permit application. The permit will be extended 3 years from the date of the extended permit issuance. (For example, if a permit was originally issued in January 2020, a permit application was filed to extend the permit and the extended permit was issued in January 2021, the extended permit expiration date would be January 2024.)
• An application to extend permit expiration must include all attachments as if the application was for a new permit. Permit applications for operator name changes and amendments will not extend the permit expiration date if the application does not include all of the attachments as if the application was for a new well.