Bill Text: TX HB2688 | 2017-2018 | 85th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating to the authority of the Railroad Commission of Texas to prevent waste of oil and gas.
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2017-04-17 - Left pending in committee [HB2688 Detail]
Download: Texas-2017-HB2688-Introduced.html
85R4238 JXC-F | ||
By: Bonnen of Galveston | H.B. No. 2688 |
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relating to the authority of the Railroad Commission of Texas to | ||
prevent waste of oil and gas. | ||
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
SECTION 1. Section 85.046, Natural Resources Code, is | ||
amended by amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsections (d) and | ||
(e) to read as follows: | ||
(a) The term "waste," among other things, specifically | ||
includes: | ||
(1) operation of any oil well or wells with an | ||
inefficient gas-oil ratio and the commission may determine and | ||
prescribe by order the permitted gas-oil ratio for the operation of | ||
oil wells; | ||
(2) drowning with water a stratum or part of a stratum | ||
that is capable of producing oil or gas or both in paying | ||
quantities; | ||
(3) underground waste or loss, however caused and | ||
whether or not the cause of the underground waste or loss is defined | ||
in this section; | ||
(4) permitting any natural gas well to burn | ||
wastefully; | ||
(5) creation of unnecessary fire hazards; | ||
(6) physical waste or loss incident to or resulting | ||
from drilling, equipping, locating, spacing, or operating a well or | ||
wells in a manner that reduces or tends to reduce the total ultimate | ||
recovery of oil or gas from any pool; | ||
(7) waste or loss incident to or resulting from the | ||
unnecessary, inefficient, excessive, or improper use of the | ||
reservoir energy, including the gas energy or water drive, in any | ||
well or pool[ |
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(8) surface waste or surface loss, including the | ||
temporary or permanent storage of oil or the placing of any product | ||
of oil in open pits or earthen storage, and other forms of surface | ||
waste or surface loss including unnecessary or excessive surface | ||
losses, or destruction without beneficial use, either of oil or | ||
gas; | ||
(9) escape of gas into the open air in excess of the | ||
amount necessary in the efficient drilling or operation of the well | ||
from a well producing both oil and gas; | ||
(10) production of oil in excess of transportation or | ||
market facilities or reasonable market demand, and the commission | ||
may determine when excess production exists or is imminent and | ||
ascertain the reasonable market demand; and | ||
(11) surface or subsurface waste of hydrocarbons, | ||
including the physical or economic waste or loss of hydrocarbons in | ||
the creation, operation, maintenance, or abandonment of an | ||
underground hydrocarbon storage facility. | ||
(d) It is not the intent of this section or the provisions of | ||
this chapter that were formerly a part of Chapter 26, Acts of the | ||
42nd Legislature, 1st Called Session, 1931, as amended, to require | ||
repressuring of an oil pool or to require that the separately owned | ||
properties in any pool be unitized under one management, control, | ||
or ownership. | ||
(e) Notwithstanding Subsection (d), this section and the | ||
provisions of this chapter that were formerly a part of Chapter 26, | ||
Acts of the 42nd Legislature, 1st Called Session, 1931, as amended, | ||
do not prohibit the commission from imposing fieldwide unitization | ||
of a geologic formation of oil or gas of Cenozoic age for the | ||
purposes of a new or expanded enhanced recovery project under | ||
Section 202.054, Tax Code. | ||
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives | ||
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as | ||
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this | ||
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this | ||
Act takes effect September 1, 2017. |