47-327. CONFIDENTIALITY OF WELL AND TRADE INFORMATION. (1) Information that shall be held confidential from the public includes logs of a well granted confidential well status pursuant to subsection (2) of this section, electrical or radioactivity logs, electromagnetic or magnetic surveys, core descriptions and analyses, maps, and other geological, geophysical and engineering information. Seismic data shall remain confidential from all parties at the discretion of the operator due to the nature of purchasing and licensing such data.

(2) An operator may request confidential well status at the time of filing an application for a permit to drill. The information in the application form itself will not be confidential.

(a) Confidential status shall be granted and shall include all pertinent data and information relating to drilling completion and testing the well. Such information shall be kept confidential from the public for a period of one hundred eighty (180) days after completion of the well.

(b) Well test results shall be kept confidential from the public for a period of one hundred eighty (180) days after completion of the test.

(c) No extensions shall be allowed beyond the one hundred eighty (180) day confidentiality period.

(3) An operator may request that well logs for a well with confidential well status be held confidential.

(a) To obtain confidential treatment of a well log, the operator of the well shall place the log in an envelope, noting log readings and marked "confidential."

(b) An operator may request, and the department may grant, an additional six (6) months of confidentiality for well logs.

(c) Confidential status for a well log shall terminate six (6) months after the run date on the log or, in the case of an extension, twelve (12) months after the run date on the log. Confidential status for a well log shall not continue for a period in excess of twelve (12) months from the date the log was run on the well.

(4) The state tax commission, the oil and gas conservation commission, the Idaho geologic survey and other state agencies shall share oil and gas records when necessary for those agencies to carry out their duties assigned by law, regardless of whether the records are held confidential from the public under this section. This sharing of records shall not render the shared records subject to disclosure to the public under the public records act.

(5) All state agencies, state employees, contract personnel, temporary personnel and their agents or affiliates shall be governed by the confidentiality provisions of this section and shall be subject to sections 74-117 and 74-118, Idaho Code, should any information or records protected under statute be disclosed.

History:

[47-327, added 2017, ch. 271, sec. 20, p. 698.]