Before you permanently plug a well or zone, you must submit form BSEE-0124, Application for Permit to Modify, to the appropriate District Manager and receive approval. A request for approval must contain the following information:

(a) The reason you are plugging the well (or zone), for completions with production amounts specified by the Regional Supervisor, along with substantiating information demonstrating its lack of capacity for further profitable production of oil, gas, or sulfur;

(b) Recent well test data and pressure data, if available;

(c) Maximum possible surface pressure, and how it was determined;

(d) Type and weight of well-control fluid you will use;

(e) A description of the work;

(f) A current and proposed well schematic and description that includes:

(1) Well depth;

(2) All perforated intervals that have not been plugged;

(3) Casing and tubing depths and details;

(4) Subsurface equipment;

(5) Estimated tops of cement (and the basis of the estimate) in each casing annulus;

(6) Plug locations;

(7) Plug types;

(8) Plug lengths;

(9) Properties of mud and cement to be used;

(10) Perforating and casing cutting plans;

(11) Plug testing plans;

(12) Casing removal (including information on explosives, if used);

(13) Proposed casing removal depth; and

(14) Your plans to protect archaeological and sensitive biological features, including anchor damage during plugging operations, a brief assessment of the environmental impacts of the plugging operations, and the procedures and mitigation measures you will take to minimize such impacts; and

(g) Certification by a Registered Professional Engineer of the well abandonment design and procedures and that all plugs meet the requirements in the table in § 250.1715. In addition to the requirements of § 250.1715, the Registered Professional Engineer must also certify the design will include two independent barriers, one of which must be a mechanical barrier, in the center wellbore as described in § 250.420(b)(3). The Registered Professional Engineer must be registered in a State of the United States and have sufficient expertise and experience to perform the certification. You must submit this certification with your APM (Form BSEE-0124).

[76 FR 64462, Oct. 18, 2011, as amended at 77 FR 50900, Aug. 22, 2012]