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EOR Project (Form H-12)

To obtain project approval: 

  1. The operator must file the application for a New or Expanded Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Project and Area Designation (Form H-12) with the Railroad Commission prior to the start of active operations before consideration can be given for enhanced oil recovery severance tax rate eligibility.
  2. The Form H-12 and all supporting documents can be mailed to the Railroad Commission of Texas:

    P.O. Box 12967
    Austin, Texas  78711-2967  

  3. A project may be considered only as a new (Line 6A) or an expanded (Line 6B) enhanced recovery project, not both.  Initial means no prior injection in the project area.  Expanded means there IS ongoing injection activity in the project area, and the operator wants to add wells, recomplete wells, or increase injection volumes within the project area, but the project area is not an approved EOR project.  Read SWR 50(c)(8) definition.
  4. The H-12 application can be for any method of recovery (Line 5) listed in SWR 50(c)(20) (sections A through I).  These methods are further classified as being either “tertiary” or “secondary.”  “Tertiary” is any of the items classified under A through I. "Secondary" usually means waterflood only.

    A method classified as “other” must go thru legal review/hearing unless there is already a prior precedent established for that method.  Please read SWR 50(c)(20) (sections A through I).

  5. Application attachments:
    1. A certified plat with the project area outlined, that clearly identifies: 
      • lease name, number and project area boundaries, northerly direction and scale  
    2. Include well numbers and API numbers for the following:
      • all active producing wells, all proposed injection wells
      • all permitted injection wells, all other unplugged wells (include status such as shut-in, 14(b)2 extension, etc.)
    3. Five years of lease production and injection history and supporting data sheets in both graph and tabular format. This should include oil, gas and water production and any injection, along with well counts for both producing and injection wells.
  6. Additional application attachments for expanded enhanced recovery projects:
    1. Description of existing enhanced recovery project.
    2. Description of the changes to the existing enhanced recovery project which may include a change of process or pattern, infill drilling of injectors and producers, vertical expansions, or other operating changes which will result in the recovery of oil which would not otherwise be recovered.
    3. The monthly oil production data must include the specific production decline rate established over the entire data set and the method used to determine the decline rate.
  7. Additional data may be required for some applications. You will be notified if this is required. 
  8. If unitization agreement approval is necessary for the project, it must be granted prior to the H-12 application being approved. You may submit the H-12 application at the hearing required for unitization agreement approval.  
  9. If the H-12 application is approved, you will be issued a Project and Area Designation Approval.  
  10. If this application cannot be approved administratively, a hearing may be requested. 

Geologic Storage of Anthropogenic CO2 (Form H-12A)

You may be entitled to an additional 50 percent reduction in severance tax rate if your EOR project uses anthropogenic carbon dioxide. To receive the additional reduction in tax rate you must file the Application for Certification for Additional Tax Rate Reduction for Enhanced Oil Recovery Projects Using Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide (Form H-12A) and the attachments required thereto. Attachments include:

  1. Description of historical release of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) at the source facility.
  2. Description of the method of capture of the anthropogenic CO2 and the method and accuracy of the measurement of anthropogenic CO2 that is captured at the source.
  3. Description of the planned sequestration program to ensure that 99% of the anthropogenic CO2 will remain sequestered for at least 1000 years.

Information about permitting an injection well for carbon sequestration can be found on our CO2 Storage webpage. Title 16, Texas Admin. Code, Chapter 5, Subchapter C are the rules that regulate certification of geologic storage of anthropogenic CO2 incidental to EOR.

Huff & Puff

Injection for the purpose of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is regulated through the Commission’s federally delegated Underground Injection Control (UIC) program and Statewide Rule 46 (SWR 46) (16 Texas Administrative Code §3.46). This type of EOR involves the generally continuous injection of a fluid or gas into a well to mobilize oil and, conventionally, involves separate injection wells and production wells. 

In a cyclic gas injection project, the operator injects fluid or gas into a well for a relatively short period of time, allows the fluid or gas to “soak” in the reservoir, then produces hydrocarbons from the same well. This process is also sometimes called cyclical imbibition or cyclic miscible gas displacement or, colloquially, "Huff & Puff". 

Huff & Puff injection wells that utilize separate injection well(s) or when the same well is utilized to conduct alternating cycles of injection and production on a semi-continuous basis (e.g. longer than 30 days of injection or more than one injection cycle per year) will require a SWR 46 permit and it should be noted on the permit the well is for a "Huff & Puff" project.

Information required with the H-12 for these types of applications (in addition to the standard documents) will include: 

  1. Description and general plan for the project 
  2. Explanation of how the project boundary was determined
  3. Well configuration and modification 
  4. Oil recovery improvement process 
  5. Detail for the injection/soak/production cycle – duration of each period and how many cycles per year 
  6. Anticipated volumes that will be injected for each cycle 
  7. Project monitoring and production reporting 
  8. Pre-EOR base for the project (as described in the 1991 Docket 3-95,902) 

If the well is permitted for cyclic injection, it must be included on the well schedule as both an injection well and producing well once completed. The operator will request this on the completion report in the “Remarks” section. The appropriate forms and reports must also be submitted to the Production Unit to comply with all rules and regulations. 


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