(a) General permit conditions.
(1) Each condition applicable to a permit shall be incorporated into the permit either expressly or by reference. If incorporated by reference, a specific citation to the rules in this chapter shall be given in the permit. The requirements listed in this section are directly enforceable regardless of whether the requirement is a condition of the permit.
(2) The permit may be modified, revoked and reissued, or terminated for cause. The filing of a request by the permittee for a permit modification, revocation and reissuance, or termination, or a notification of planned changes or anticipated noncompliance, does not stay any permit condition.
(b) General criteria. The director may issue a permit under this subchapter if the applicant demonstrates and the director finds that:
(1) the injection and geologic storage of anthropogenic CO 2 will not endanger or injure any existing or prospective oil, gas, geothermal, or other mineral resource, or cause waste as defined by Texas Natural Resources Code, §85.046(11);
(2) with proper safeguards, both USDWs and surface water can be adequately protected from CO 2 migration or displaced formation fluids;
(3) the injection of anthropogenic CO 2 will not endanger or injure human health and safety;
(4) the construction, operation, maintenance, conversion, plugging, abandonment, or any other injection activity does not allow the movement of fluid containing any contaminant into USDWs, if the presence of that contaminant may cause a violation of any primary drinking water regulation under 40 CFR Part 142 or may otherwise adversely affect the health of persons;
(5) the reservoir into which the anthropogenic CO 2 is injected is suitable for or capable of being made suitable for protecting against the escape or migration of anthropogenic CO 2 from the storage reservoir;
(6) the geologic storage facility will be sited in an area with suitable geology, which at a minimum must include: (A) an injection zone of sufficient areal extent, thickness, porosity, and permeability to receive the total anticipated volume of the CO 2 stream; and (B) a confining zone that is laterally continuous and free of known transecting transmissive faults or fractures over an area sufficient to contain the injected CO 2 stream and displaced formation fluids and allow injection at proposed maximum pressures and volumes without compromising the confining zone or causing the movement of fluids that endangers USDWs;
(7) the applicant for the permit meets all of the other statutory and regulatory requirements for the issuance of the permit;
(8) the applicant has provided a letter from the Groundwater Advisory Unit of the Oil and Gas Division in accordance with §5.203(o) of this title (relating to Application Requirements);
(9) the applicant has provided a letter of determination from TCEQ concluding that drilling and operating an anthropogenic CO 2 injection well for geologic storage or constructing or operating a geologic storage facility will not impact or interfere with any previous or existing Class I injection well, including any associated waste plume, or any other injection well authorized or permitted by TCEQ;
(10) the applicant has provided a signed statement that the applicant has a good faith claim to the necessary and sufficient property rights for construction and operation of the geologic storage facility for at least the first five years after initiation of injection in accordance with §5.203(d)(1)(A) of this title;
(11) the applicant has paid the fees required in §5.205(a) of this title (relating to Fees, Financial Responsibility, and Financial Assurance);
(12) the director has determined that the applicant has sufficiently demonstrated financial responsibility as required in §5.205(b) of this title; and
(13) the applicant submitted to the director financial assurance in accordance with §5.205(c) of this title.
(c) Permit conditions for injection well construction.
(1) Construction of anthropogenic CO 2 injection wells must meet the criteria in §5.203(e) of this title.
(2) Within 30 days after the completion or conversion of an injection well subject to this subchapter, the operator must file with the division a complete record of the well on Commission Form W-2, Oil Well Potential Test, Completion or Recompletion Report and Log showing the current completion.
(3) Except in the case of an emergency repair, the operator of a geologic storage facility must notify the director in writing at least 30 days prior to conducting any well workover that involves running tubing and setting packers, beginning any workover or remedial operation, or conducting any required pressure tests or surveys. Such activities shall not commence before the end of the 30 days unless authorized by the director. In the case of an emergency repair, the operator must notify the director of such emergency repair as soon as reasonably practical.
(d) Permit conditions for operating a geologic storage facility.
(1) Operating plan. (A) The operator must maintain and comply with the approved operating plan. (B) Prior to approval for the operation of a Class VI injection well, the operator shall submit, and the director shall consider, the following information: (i) the final AOR based on modeling, using data obtained during logging and testing of the well and the formation as required by clauses (ii), (iii), (iv), (vi), (vii), and (x) of this subparagraph; (ii) any relevant updates, based on data obtained during logging and testing of the well and the formation as required by clauses (iii), (iv), (vi), (vii), and (x) of this subparagraph to the information on the geologic structure and hydrogeologic properties of the proposed storage site and overlying formations, submitted to satisfy the requirements of §5.203(c)(2) and (3) of this title; (iii) information on the compatibility of the CO 2 stream with fluids in the injection zones and minerals in both the injection and the confining zones, based on the results of the formation testing program, and with the materials used to construct the well; (iv) the results of the formation testing program required by §5.203(f) of this title; (v) final injection well construction procedures that meet the requirements of §5.203(e) of this title; (vi) the status of corrective action on wells in the AOR; (vii) all available logging and testing program data on the well required by §5.203(f) of this title; (viii) a demonstration of mechanical integrity pursuant to §5.203(h) of this title; (ix) any updates to the proposed AOR and corrective action plan, testing and monitoring plan, injection well plugging plan, post-injection storage facility care and closure plan, or the emergency and remedial response plan submitted under §5.203(m) of this subchapter, which are necessary to address new information collected during logging and testing of the well and the formation as required by this section, and any updates to the alternative post-injection storage facility care timeframe demonstration submitted under §5.203(m) of this title, which are necessary to address new information collected during the logging and testing of the well and the formation as required by this section; and (x) any other information requested by the director.
(2) Operating criteria. (A) Injection between the outermost casing protecting USDWs and the well bore is prohibited. (B) The total volume of CO 2 injected into the storage facility must be metered through a master meter or a series of master meters. The volume and/or mass of CO 2 injected into each injection well must be metered through an individual well meter. If mass is determined using volume, the operator must provide calculations. (C) The operator must comply with a maximum surface injection pressure limit approved by the director and specified in the permit. In approving a maximum surface injection pressure limit, the director must consider the results of well tests and, where appropriate, geomechanical or other studies that assess the risks of tensile failure and shear failure. The director must approve limits that, with a reasonable degree of certainty, will avoid initiation or propagation of fractures in the confining zone or cause otherwise non-transmissive faults or fractures transecting the confining zone to become transmissive. In no case may injection pressure cause movement of injection fluids or formation fluids in a manner that endangers USDWs. The Commission shall include in any permit it might issue a limit of 90 percent of the fracture pressure to ensure that the injection pressure does not initiate new fractures or propagate existing fractures in the injection zone(s). In no case may injection pressure initiate fractures in the confining zone(s) or cause the movement of injection or formation fluids that endangers a USDW. The director may approve a plan for controlled artificial fracturing of the injection zone. (D) The operator must fill the annulus between the tubing and the long string casing with a corrosion inhibiting fluid approved by the director. The owner or operator must maintain on the annulus a pressure that exceeds the operating injection pressure, unless the director determines that such requirement might harm the integrity of the well or endanger USDWs. (E) The operator must install and use continuous recording devices to monitor the injection pressure, and the rate, volume, and temperature of the CO 2 stream. The operator must monitor the pressure on the annulus between the tubing and the long string casing. The operator must continuously record, continuously monitor, or control by a preset high-low pressure sensor switch the wellhead pressure of each injection well. (F) The operator must comply with the following requirements for alarms and automatic shut-off systems. (i) The operator must install and use alarms and automatic shut-off systems designed to alert the operator and shut-in the well when operating parameters such as annulus pressure, injection rate or other parameters diverge from permitted ranges and/or gradients. On offshore wells, the automatic shut-off systems must be installed down-hole. (ii) If an automatic shutdown is triggered or a loss of mechanical integrity is discovered, the operator must immediately investigate and identify as expeditiously as possible the cause. If, upon investigation, the well appears to be lacking mechanical integrity, or if monitoring otherwise indicates that the well may be lacking mechanical integrity, the operator must: (I) immediately cease injection; (II) take all steps reasonably necessary to determine whether there may have been a release of the injected CO 2 stream into any unauthorized zone; (III) notify the director as soon as practicable, but within 24 hours; (IV) restore and demonstrate mechanical integrity to the satisfaction of the director prior to resuming injection; and (V) notify the director when injection can be expected to resume.
(e) Permit conditions for monitoring, sampling, and testing requirements.
(1) The operator of an anthropogenic CO 2 injection well must maintain and comply with the approved monitoring, sampling, and testing plan to verify that the geologic storage facility is operating as permitted and that the injected fluids are confined to the injection zone.
(2) All permits shall include the following requirements: (A) the proper use, maintenance, and installation of monitoring equipment or methods; (B) monitoring including type, intervals, and frequency sufficient to yield data that are representative of the monitored activity including, when required, continuous monitoring; (C) reporting no less frequently than as specified in §5.207 of this title (relating to Reporting and Record-Keeping).
(3) The director may require additional monitoring as necessary to support, upgrade, and improve computational modeling of the AOR evaluation and to determine compliance with the requirement that the injection activity not allow movement of fluid that would endanger USDWs.
(4) The director may require measures and actions designed to minimize and respond to risks associated with potential seismic events, including seismic monitoring.
(5) The operator shall comply with the following monitoring and record retention requirements. (A) Samples and measurements taken for the purpose of monitoring shall be representative of the monitored activity. (B) The permittee shall retain records of all monitoring information, including the following: Cont'd...