Federal Regulations: Minerals Management Service

The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) established federal jurisdiction over submerged lands on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) seaward of state boundaries. Under the OCSLA, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) is responsible for the administration of mineral exploration and development of the OCS. Pursuant to a delegation by the DOI Secretary, the Minerals Management Service (MMS), a DOI bureau, is the federal agency that manages the nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the OCS. The agency also collects, accounts for, and disburses the revenues from federal offshore mineral leases and from onshore mineral leases on federal and Indian lands. The national program includes two major programs, Offshore Minerals Management and Minerals Revenue Management. The offshore program, which manages the mineral resources on the OCS, features three regions: Alaska, Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific.

Contact

OCS Regional Offices

Disposal Practices and Applicable Regulations

The MMS regulations governing oil and gas operations in the OCS are codified at 30 CFR Part 250 (Oil and Gas and Sulphur Operations in the Outer Continental Shelf). Notices to Lessees (NTLs) clarify, describe, or interpret offshore regulations or standards. NTLs also may provide guidelines on special lease stipulations, explain the MMS's interpretation of requirements, or transmit administrative information. There are two types of NTLs, those issued at the regional level, pertinent to a particular region, and those issued nationally that are effective nationwide for all MMS regions. The MMS Gulf of Mexico OCS Region (GOMR) has published NTL No. 99-G22, Guidelines for the Sub-Seabed Disposal and Offshore Storage of Solid Wastes.

• Waste Disposal. In U.S. offshore areas, operators may inject exempt exploration and production (E&P) wastes that originate on the OCS into injection wells or encapsulate them in the well bore of wells that are about to be abandoned. Each application for underground waste disposal must be authorized on a case-by-case basis by the MMS (see 30 CFR §250.300(b)(2)).



• Injection Criteria. If operators inject exempt E&P wastes through underground injection wells, the formation that receives the wastes must be located below the deepest underground source of drinking water, must be isolated above and below by shale layers, and may not contain any producing wells. Operators must demonstrate that injection wells have mechanical integrity.



• Encapsulation Criteria. Operators may use two different types of encapsulation for exempt E&P wastes. The first type involves the placement of the wastes directly in the well bore of a well that is being abandoned. Under the second type, wastes are placed into a section of pipe, caps are put on both ends, and the pipe section is lowered into the well bore. In both cases, the wells selected to receive the wastes must not be intersected by faults that extend upward to the sea floor and must not be located in an area with mud flows, slumps, or slides. The top of the encapsulated waste must be located at least 1,000 feet below the mudline (note that if that location is at less than 3,000 feet, the casing must be filled with cement at all depths above 3,000 feet). Encapsulated wastes must be isolated from any open annulus through placement of a 200-foot-long cement plug between the waste and the open annulus. Operators must place a cast-iron bridge plug and a 200-foot-long cement plug at the top of the wastes.

Other Publications

• MMS completed an Environmental Assessment on deep water operations and activities in the Gulf of Mexico in May 2000.