BEFORE THE OIL AND GAS CONSERVATION COMMISSION

OF THE STATE OF COLORADO

 

IN THE MATTER OF GENERAL RULES AND REGU-LATIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE CONSERVATION OF OIL AND GAS IN THE STATE OF COLORADO, AND RULES OF PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE PERTAINING THERETO AND IN PARTICULAR WITH REFERENCE TO RULE 327 (UNDERGROUND DISPOSAL OF WATER)

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CAUSE NO. 1

ORDER NO. 1-2 (Formerly 1-13)

 

REPORT OF THE COMMISSION

 

            This cause came on for hearing before the Commission on September 19, 1972, at 9 a.m., in Room 132, State Services Building, Denver, Colorado, after giving Notice of Hearing as required by law, on the application of Skelly Oil Company for approval to dispose of produced water from its operations in the Walker Field, Logan County, Colorado, into the C. F. Green Well No. 2.

 

FINDINGS

 

            The Commission finds as follows:

1.         That due notice of time, place, and purpose of the hearing has been given in all respects as required by law.

 

            2.      That the Commission has jurisdiction over the subject matter embrace in said Notice, and of the parties interested herein, and jurisdiction to promulgate the hereinafter prescribed order.

 

            3.      That Skelly Oil Company presented a subsurface disposal plan which provides for oil field waste liquids to be reinjected in the annulus between the production string and the Pierre Shale in the C. F. Green Well No. 2, located in the NW¼ NE¼ Section 20, Township 9 North, Range 53 West, 6th P.M.

 

            4.      That although there are minor potable water aquifers in the Pierre-Fox Hills transition zone, zones of equal or higher permeability exist in the lower Pierre Shale and in the Niobrara formation which will be subject to greater hydrostatic heads and would take the available waste fluids with the result that the upper zone would not be polluted.

 

            5.      That the water contained in the lower zones of the Pierre Shale and Niobrara formation equal or exceed the salinity of the waste fluids to be injected and no pollution will occur; therefore the application should be approved.

ORDER

 

            NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS ORDERED, that the plan, submitted by Skelly Oil Company to dispose of oil field waste liquids from its operations in the Walker Field, Logan County, Colorado by reinjection in the annulus between the production string of casing and the Pierre Shale and Niobrara formation in the C. F. Green Well No. 2, located in the NW¼ NE¼ Section 20, Township 9 North, Range 53 West, 6th P. M. is hereby approved.

 

            IT IS FURTHER ORDERED, that the Commission expressly reserves it right, after notice and hearing, to alter, amend or repeal any and/or all of the above order.

 

            ORDERED this 25th day of September, 1972.

 

OIL AND GAS CONSERVATION COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF COLORADO

 

 

By Frank J. Piro, Secretary