Process Change When Resuming Drilling Operations after Setting Surface Casing
Drilling a well involves a number of discrete activities. Sometimes an operator drills to full licensed depth all at once, while at other times they break the activities up. Licensees who continued their drilling operations more than six months after it was started filed for and received a “resume approval.” There was no operational reason for this approach (for example, there is no safety or environmental concern when resuming drilling after the surface casing has been set). This secondary filing and issuance of another approval was necessary due to how our legacy systems were configured. Recent changes to OneStop and the Digital Data Submission (DDS) system have resolved this issue. Effective immediately, we are discontinuing this process. No additional application or approval is required when the licence has been acted upon by the well being spud and the setting of surface casing has occurred, regardless of the length of time between this and the continuation of the drilling of the main hole. Licensees must provide the appropriate drilling activity notifications in the DDS system as explained in and required under Directive 059: Well Drilling and Completion Data Filing Requirements. Licensees should use the notifications “Drilling to Set Surface Casing Only” followed by “Drilling to Licensed Depth.”
Licensees must still apply to resume drilling when performing additional drilling operations after a previous completion, suspension, or abandonment of their well, as outlined in section 3.010(1)(e) of the Oil and Gas Conservation Rules and section 7 of Directive 056.
If you have any questions, contact the Customer Contact Centre by phone at 1-855-297-8311 or email to @email.