Offshore and Oil & Gas NPDES permits

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Oil and Gas Permits, Forms, Documents (mostly in Adobe Acrobat PDF file format) and links:

The final NPDES General Permit [Adobe Acrobat PDF file format] for New and Existing Sources and New Discharges in the Offshore Subcategory of the Oil and Gas Extraction Category for the Western Portion of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) of the Gulf of Mexico (GMG290000) and Notice of a Proposed Modification to that permit was published at 72 Fed. Reg. No. 109, p. 31575, published June 7, 2007, effective October 1, 2007. 

• OCS Application and Termination forms:
  • Notice of Intent
  • Notice of Termination
  • Transfer Agreement
• Delegation of Signatory Authority letter for the Offshore Outer Continental Shelf General Permit.

2004 Permit Discharge Monitoring Report instructions for Offshore permittees.

2007 Permit Discharge Monitoring Report instructions for Offshore permittees.

Economic Analysis of Proposed Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for Synthetic-Based Drilling Fluids and Other Non-Aqueous Drilling Fluids in the Oil and Gas Extraction Point Source Category.

Final NPDES General Permit for New and Existing Sources and New Dischargers in the Offshore Subcategory of the Oil and Gas Extraction Category for the Western Portion of the Outer Continental Shelf of the Gulf of Mexico (GMG290000) as published at 63 Fed. Reg. No. 211, p. 58722, November 2, 1998.

Environmental Assesment of Final Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for Synthetic-Based Drilling Fluids and other Non-Squeous Drilling Fluids in the Oil and Gas Extraction Point Source Category: www.epa.gov/ost/guide/sbf/

EPA's Office of Wetlands, Oceans & Watersheds is our headquarters office in Washington DC that developes polices and guidelines on discharges from offshore platforms.

• Marine Pollution Control Programs

Final NPDES General Permit for Discharges from the Oil and Gas Extraction Point Source Category to Coastal Waters in Texas (TXG330000) This final permit was published in the Federal Register on July 7, 2007 (72 Fed. Reg. No. 109, p. 31579). Federal Register Notice. Application: Notice of Intent.

Final NPDES General Permit for Discharges from the Oil and Gas Extraction Point Source Category to Coastal Waters in Texas (TXG330000) This final permit was published in the Federal Register on November 15, 2001 (66 Fed. Reg. No. 22, p. 57457-57465). Response to Comments.

Final NPDES General Pemrits for Produced Water and Produced Sand Discharges from Oil and Gas Extraction Point Source Category to Coastal Waters in Louisiana (LAG290000) and Texas (TXG290000) [60 Fed. Reg. No. 5, p. 2387, January 9, 1995]

Final NPDES General Permits for the Oil and Gas Extraction Point Source Categroy, Onshore Subcategory - States of Louisiana (LAG320000), New Mexico (NMG320000), Oklahoma (OKG320000), and Texas (TXG320000) [56 Fed. Reg. No. 37, p 7698, February 25, 1991]

Final NPDES General Permits for the Coastal Waters of Louisiana (LAG330000) and Texas (TXG330000) [58 Fed. Reg. No. 181, p. 49126, September 21, 1993]

EPA Region 6 Water Management Division's General Permits web page (contains all general permits including oil/gas and offshore general permits).

Non-compliance Reporting: Part II.D.7. of the OCS Permit (GMG290000), as well as in the Standard Conditions section of most NPDES permits, requires the permittee to report any non-compliance which may endanger health or the environment within 24 hours. The 24 Hour report may be either on telephone to (214)665-6593 or by E-mail to r6genpermit@epa.gov. Additionally, the oral/e-mail report is required to be followed up by a written report within 5 days of the time the permittee becomes aware of the situation. This written report shall be certified [40 CFR 122.22(d)] and signed by an authorized official [40 CFR 122.22(a)], and include your specific permit number (e.g. GMG29#### and not just GMG290000) and information regarding the non-compliance, its duration, any environmental impacts, and any remediation actions taken.

Questions and Answer document developed with the Offshore Operators Committee for the Feb. 16th permit modifications.

Authorized Signatories:

40 CFR 122.22(d), as well as Part II.D.10. of the OCS permit, states that "All applications [NOIs, Transfer Agreements, Mergers, etc.], reports [Discharge Monitoring Reports, Non-compliance Reports, etc.], or information [address/contact name updates], NOT's, submitted to the Director shall be signed and certified. Many operators fail to have their documents properly signed and certifed by an authorized official of their company. The following is the certification that must accompany these documents:

"I certify under penalty of law that this document and all attachments were prepared under my direction or supervision in accordance with a system designed to assure that qualified personnel properly gathered and evaluated the information submitted. Based on my inquiry of the person or persons who manage the system, or those person directly responsible for gathering the information, the information submitted is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, true, accurate, and complete. I am aware that there are significant penalties for submitting false information, including the possibility of fine and imprisonment for knowing violations."

An example letter of Delegation of Signatory Authority for the Offshore Outer Continental Shelf General Permit (GMG29####) has been prepared for use by those permittees.

40 CFR 122.22 was revised effective July 1, 2001 to amend the requirements of an authorized person. If you are corresponding with EPA regarding compliance with a permit you already have, you are to use the definition of authorized person in your permit language. Upon modification or reissuance of your NPDES permit, the definition will be updated. If do not have an NPDES permit, you should use the new definition of authorized person.

• 40 CFR 122.22 (HTML Format)
• 40 CFR 122.22 (Adobe Acrobat PDF File format)

EPA tracks all of your documentation by NPDES permit number (e.g. GMG29####). To assure your correspondence is properly filed, please make reference to your permit number in all correspondence to EPA. Also, be sure and spell out the name of the lease area. While MMS uses abbreviations, there are some duplicates (e.g. MI could be either Matagorda Island or Mustang Island) and spelling the lease area out will eliminate any confusion.

"New Source" means any facility or activity that meets the definition of "new source" under 40 CFR 122.2 and meets the criteria for determination of new sources under 40 CFR 122.29(b) applied consistently with all of the following definitions:

(a) The term "water area" as used in the term "site" in 40 CFR 122.29 and 122.2 shall mean the water area and ocean floor beneath any exploratory, development, or production facility where such facility is conducting its exploratory, development, or production activities.

(b) The term "significant site preparation work" as used in 40 CFR 122.29 shall mean the process of surveying, clearing, or preparing an area of the ocean floor for the purpose of constructing or placing a development or production facility on or over the site.

“New Source” does not include facilities covered by an existing NPDES permit immediately prior to the effective date of these guidelines pending EPA issuance of a new source NPDES permit.

Also, exploration facilities are not defined as new sources.

The guidelines were issued on March 4, 1993 [58 Fed. Reg. No. 12504], any facility put in place after that date is a new source. It should be noted that the new source definition has little actual meaning in this case since the limits are the same for both existing sources and new sources for the 1998 GMG290000 permit. Effluent guidelines were also published at 61 Fed. Reg. No. 66085, December 16, 1996.