# Title 33.1 — Department of Environmental Quality

## Article 33.1-15 — Air Pollution Control

## Chapter 33.1-15-20 — Control of Emissions from Oil and Gas Well Production Facilities

Requirements
### § 33.1-15-20-01. General provisions.

1. Applicability. The provisions of this chapter apply to any oil or gas well facility which emits air
contaminants to the atmosphere.
2. Definitions. As used in this chapter, all terms not defined herein shall have the meaning given
them in section 33.1-15-01-04 or in North Dakota Century Code chapter 23.1-06.
a. "Actively producing" means a well has been producing for thirty days or more from initial
production through the wellhead equipment.
b. "Casinghead gas" means any gas or vapor, or both gas and vapor, indigenous to and
produced from a pool classified as an oil pool by the North Dakota state industrial
commission.
c. "Completion" means an oil well must be considered completed when the first oil is
produced through wellhead equipment into lease tanks from the ultimate producing
interval after casing has been run. A gas well must be considered complete when the well
is capable of producing gas through wellhead equipment from the ultimate producing
zone after casing has been run. A dry hole must be considered complete when all North
Dakota state industrial commission provisions of plugging are complied with.
d. "Condensate" means the liquid hydrocarbons recovered at the surface that result from
condensation due to reduced pressure or temperature of petroleum hydrocarbons
existing in a gaseous phase in the reservoir.
e. "Continuous burning pilot" means a stable auxiliary flame supported by a reliable fuel
source which is independent of wellhead production.
f. "Cubic foot of gas" means that volume of gas contained in one cubic foot [28.32 liters] of
space and computed at a pressure of fourteen and seven-tenths pounds per square inch
[1,034 grams per square centimeter] absolute at a base temperature of sixty degrees
Fahrenheit [15.5 degrees Celsius].
g. "Gas well" means a well producing gas or natural gas from a common source of gas
supply as determined by the North Dakota state industrial commission.
h. "Natural gas or gas" means and includes all natural gas and all other fluid hydrocarbons
not herein defined as oil.
i. "Oil" means and includes crude petroleum oil and other hydrocarbons regardless of
specific gravity which are produced at the wellhead in liquid form and the liquid
hydrocarbons known as distillate or condensate recovered or extracted from gas, other
than gas produced in association with oil and commonly known as casinghead gas.

j. "Oil well" means any well capable of producing oil or oil and casinghead gas from a
common source of supply as determined by the North Dakota state industrial
commission.
k. "Operator" means any person or persons who, duly authorized, is in charge of the
development of a lease or the operation of a producing property.
l. "Owner" means the person who has the right to drill into and produce from a pool and to
appropriate the oil or gas the person produces.
m. "Pool" means an underground reservoir containing a common accumulation of oil or gas
or both; each zone of a structure which is completely separated from any other zone in
the same structure is a pool.
n. "Production facility" means all equipment, wells, flow lines, separators, treaters, tanks,
flares, gathering lines, and auxiliary nontransportation-related equipment used in the
exploration, development, or subsequent production or handling of oil and gas from an oil
or gas well or wells which are located on one or more contiguous or adjacent surface
properties, and are under the control of the same person (or persons under common
control).
o. "Recomplete" or "recompletion" means the subsequent completion of a well in a different
pool from the pool in which it was originally completed.
p. "Reservoir" means pool or common source of supply.
History: Effective January 1, 2019.
General Authority: NDCC 23.1-06-04; S.L. 2017, ch. 199, § 1
Law Implemented: NDCC 23.1-06-04; S.L. 2017, ch. 199, § 21
### § 33.1-15-20-02. Registration and reporting requirements.

1. The owner or operator of any actively producing oil or gas well that is completed or
recompleted on or after July 1, 1987, shall submit an oil and gas well registration form
available from the department, and an analysis of any gas produced from the well. The
registration form and gas analysis must be submitted to the department within ninety days of
the well achieving active production status. The registration form must contain sufficient
information to allow the department to determine if the oil or gas well and associated
production facility is in compliance with all applicable sections of this chapter.
2. [Reserved].
3. The owner or operator of any oil or gas well subject to this section shall inform the department
of any change to the information contained on the registration form for a particular well and
shall submit a new gas analysis if the composition or the volume of the gas produced from the
well has changed from the previous analysis to cause an increase of ten tons per year or
more of sulfur (all sulfur compounds expressed as S).
History: Effective January 1, 2019.
General Authority: NDCC 23.1-06-04; S.L. 2017, ch. 199, § 1
Law Implemented: NDCC 23.1-06-04; S.L. 2017, ch. 199, § 21

### § 33.1-15-20-03. Prevention of significant deterioration applicability and source information

requirements.
1. Any oil or gas well production facility that is a major stationary source or a major modification
as defined in chapter 33.1-15-15, shall comply with the permitting requirements of chapter
33.1-15-15.
2. To determine prevention of significant deterioration of air quality (PSD) applicability for sulfur
dioxide, the following formula must be used:
Where:
E = sulfur dioxide emission rate (tons/year).
R = the average daily amount of gas burned, incinerated and/or flared (thousand cubic
feet per day at 60oF and 14.7 pisa-MCFD) based upon a thirty-day period. The thirty-day
period must be the last thirty operating days of a one hundred eighty-day period following
the completion or recompletion of a well. In cases where the well is shut in for extended
periods during the one hundred eighty-day period following completion or recompletion, a
case-by-case determination of PSD can be requested of the department.
T = days of operation per year (day/year). This number must be three hundred sixty-five
unless there are verifiable physical limitations or a federally enforceable permit that limits
the number of operating days.
% H S = mole percent hydrogen sulfide content as determined by the most recent gas
analysis.
The formula is derived as follows:
Emissions from all onsite equipment at the production facility must be included in the total
annual emission determination.
3. The owner or operator of any oil or gas well production facility subject to subsection 1 of this
section shall provide information to demonstrate that emissions from the facility do not
significantly contribute to exceeding the ambient air quality standards, as defined in chapter
33.1-15-02, or class I or class II increments, as defined in chapter 33.1-15-15; and shall
address other requirements as specified in chapter 33.1-15-15.
History: Effective January 1, 2019.
General Authority: NDCC 23.1-06-04; S.L. 2017, ch. 199, § 1
Law Implemented: NDCC 23.1-06-04; S.L. 2017, ch. 199, § 21
### § 33.1-15-20-04. Requirements for control of production facility emissions.

1. The emissions from all treaters, separators, engines, incinerators, flares, tanks, and other
onsite equipment must comply with the requirements of subsection 5.

2. Each flare used for combusting gas at a production facility must be equipped and operated
with an automatic ignitor or a continuous burning pilot which must be maintained and operated
in good working order. This is required even if the flare is used for emergency purposes only. A
continuous burning pilot is required if this department determines that an automatic ignition
system is ineffective due to production characteristics. The flare stack must be of sufficient
height to allow for adequate dispersion of air contaminants as necessary to meet the
requirements of this article.
3. Any organic compound gases and vapors may be subject to controls as specified in chapter
33.1-15-07.
4. Routine inspections and maintenance of tanks, hatches, compressors, vent lines, pressure
relief valves, packing elements, and couplings must be conducted to minimize emissions from
equipment at a production facility. Tank hatches must hold a positive working pressure or must
be repaired or replaced.
5. The owner or operator of any oil or gas well production facility shall install equipment
necessary to ensure that emissions comply with the ambient air quality standards of chapter
33.1-15-02, including hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide; the class I and class II increments
for sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and particulate matter of chapter 33.1-15-15, if applicable;
the odor concentration limits of chapter 33.1-15-16; and any other applicable chapter of this
article. For the purpose of this chapter, compliance must be determined outside the surface
boundary of the production facility.
6. When a malfunction, the correction of a malfunction, or maintenance at any oil and gas well
production facility occurs that can be expected to cause the emission of air contaminants in
violation of this article for longer than twenty-four hours, the person responsible for such
installation shall notify the department of such malfunction or maintenance as set forth in
section 33.1-15-01-13. This subsection pertains only to the reporting of malfunctions and
maintenance and does not obviate the source's responsibility to comply with the remainder of
this chapter or article.
7. The owner or operator of any oil and gas well production facility completed prior to the
effective date of section 33.1-15-20-04 shall comply with the requirements of this chapter
within six months of the effective date of these revisions. The owner or operator of any oil and
gas well production facility completed after the effective date of the revisions to section
completion of the well.
History: Effective January 1, 2019; amended effective July 1, 2020.
General Authority: NDCC 23.1-06-04; S.L. 2017, ch. 199, § 1
Law Implemented: NDCC 23.1-06-04; S.L. 2017, ch. 199, § 21
