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Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act, 2002 (Act No. 28 of 2002)

Regulations

Amendment Regulations to the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Regulations, 2020

Chapter 8 : Well Design and Construction

95. Well design

 

(1) A holder must ensure that a well design is informed by the risk assessment and is constructed, equipped, commissioned, operated, modified, maintained, suspended and decommissioned in a manner that provides for the control of the well at all times and must prevent—
(a) the migration of petroleum and other fluids into any other formation except the targeted formation;
(b) the pollution of water resources; and
(c) risks to health and safety of persons from the well or anything in the well, or in strata to which the well is connected.

 

(2) The final well decommissioning design must be considered at the well planning stage and be included as part of the application for Environmental Authorisation for consideration.

 

(3) The decommissioning design must at least consider the following:
(a) The height of cement in annulus outside casing;
(b) permeable formations outside the casing that must be covered by cement;
(c) cementing casing overlaps;
(d) the need for plugs to cover the full diameter of the hole, with only casing within the cement;
(e) the type of fluid in annuli above cement; and
(f) the difficulty of injecting cement into the annulus.

 

(4) Where technically appropriate and environmentally safe, multi-well pads and horizontal drilling technologies must be considered in order to maximise the spacing between neighbouring wells and to minimise the cumulative surface impact of operations.

 

[Regulation 95 inserted by section 2 of Notice No. R. 466 dated 3 June 2015]