The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board
(C-NLOPB) has updated its templates respecting Well Approvals and well terminations. This initiative was taken in response to feedback received from Operators at a workshop held at the C-NLOPB in December 2010 and following the identification of a number of areas for improvement by staff while using the templates during the past year.

The new templates and notifications have been posted to the Board’s website. These include:

• Approval to Drill a Well (ADW) template that prescribes the form of the application to the C-NLOPB for an ADW.
• Approval to Alter the Condition of a Well (ACW) that prescribes the form of the application to the C-NLOPB for an ACW.
• A Notification to Suspend/Abandon that prescribes the information that must be submitted to the C-NLOPB in advance of suspending or abandoning a well.
• A Notification to Complete that prescribes the information that must be provided to the C-NLOPB in advance of completing a well for production or injection operations.
• A Well Termination Record that documents the manner in which a well has been suspended, abandoned, or completed.

The primary changes and improvements that have been made to these templates and forms include:

• The need to ensure that reference to geological tops and targeted formations agree with pool and/or zone names as designated by the C-NLOPB’s Chief Conservation Officer.
• The need to ensure that any deviations from an approved ADW or ACW are brought to the attention of the C-NLOPB’s Well Operations Engineer.
• The need to submit a Well Termination Record respecting the manner in which a well has been suspended, abandoned or completed. Previously the Notification to Suspend/Abandon or the Notification to Complete, suitably updated to reflect actual operations, was used for this purpose. This has been replaced with the need to provide a “notification” in advance of well termination and a “record” following well termination.
• A well termination record is now required for all wells (exploratory, delineation and development) whereas previously it was only required for exploratory and delineation wells.
• Additional clarification was added respecting the technical information necessary in the areas of geology, well coordinates, casing design, casing pressure tests and various other technical matters. The templates were also re-organized and reformatted for ease of use and inconsistencies between the ADW and ACW templates were corrected.