I own a 5-acre lot in Midland County, TX. It has a tank battery, oil well and SWD on it. I’m trying to figure out if it would be possible to build a house on the lot. The oil well and tank battery are actively operating, but the SWD doesn’t appear to be in use, and no trucks seem to be driving up to it (no disturbance of the vegetation).
I thought I could access records on the SWD from the RRC website, but there is nothing on it since 2006 that I can find. How do I tell if the SWD is active, and if it’s not active, is there a way to get them to abandon it? If it’s not abandoned, there still seems to be enough land to build a house. Is there a certain distance a house needs to stay away from this equipment?
On RRC website, go to Inquiries and Wellbore Status and enter API number. This API is listed as active oil unit well #303 for Germania Unit with current operator Heifer Production. RRC Oil lease 08-25017. Are there 2 wells on your land? Then there will be different API #. It would not be a commercial SWD well, but a disposal well for water produced from Germania Unit wells. The water would flow through lines to be injected back into the producing unit formation. With a producing oil well, you will need to talk with operator to see size of wellpad and where any related pipelines go and to get acreage set off for a house. You may need to consult an attorney. I would be concerned about future oil and produced water spills and other hazards . Maybe there is someone with experience who can point you in the right direction.
There is one operating pump jack. The GIS view also shows a plugged well that I don’t know anything about. I was able to see that the SWD is active after following your instructions. So, they are piping any produced water from that oil well over the the SWD if I’m understanding you correctly. So if that is the case, the land between the oil well and the SWD would have a pipeline that would preclude building there.
I looked on RRC viewer. It shows Well 303 is an injection well for the Germania unit at a depth of 4075 feet. That means that produced water from producing unit wells is being injected back into the formation. Often in the older units, the water is carried through surface lines. There is a nearby producing well that is entirely separate lease. That well is listed as the Hale N #1, API 42-329-31763, RRC Lease 08-48708 and operated by DE IV Operating LLC. That well is 11,750 feet deep. DE IV Operating has other wells in the area.