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*- Saltwater Pipeline Bill Clears Committee
A Texas House Committee has approved a bill that would require the Texas Railroad Commission to adopt safety & permitting regulations for pipelines that transport salt water waste from the oil field to disposal well facilities. Currently salt water pipelines are not under the permitting requirements of the Commission and the mapping database maintained by the Commission does not include locations & specifications of salt water pipelines. The Railroad Commission estimates that there are 146,000 miles of salt water pipelines within the state.

*- Oil Well Completion Numbers up During First Quarter 2013, API Reports
According to the American Petroleum Institute the number of domestic oil wells completed during the first quarter of 2013 was up 20 percent compared the to number of oil wells completed during the same quarter of 2012. The trend continues to be very different on the natural gas side with natural gas well completion numbers down 26 percent from first quarter 2012 numbers. This is despite the slight gain in natural gas prices over that period. In 2012 the spot price for natural gas averaged $2.75 per mmbtu compared to a $3.52 per mmbtu average projection for 2013.

*- RRC Sunset Bill Moves to Full House for Consideration
The House Energy Resources Committee has approved a bill that would continue the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the state’s oil and gas industry, but proposes renaming the 121 year old agency the Texas Energy Commission. The committee’s recommendations follow many of the recommendations by the Texas Sunset Commission – including the requirement that a Commissioner at the agency resign in order to run for a different office.

*- Midstates Acquires Acreage in Anadarko Basin
Midstates Petroleum announced this week that it has agreed to buy Anadarko Basin producing properties in the Northeastern Texas Panhandle and western Oklahoma for $620 million in cash. The acreage acquired by Midstates covers 140,000 net acres and roughly 280 producing wells. Midstates believes that the properties, which currently produce about 8,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, contain more than 700 potential locations for new horizontal wells, which would target the Cleveland, Marmaton, Cottage Grove and Tonkawa Formations. The properties were acquired from Panther Energy, Red Willow Mid-Continent and Linn Energy Holdings.

*- Current Oil & Gas Statistics
In February there were 1,744 drilling permits issued statewide by the Texas Railroad Commission, which is a figure that is roughly equal to the amount of drilling permits issued during February of last year. Total well completions for 2013 year to date are 2,925 wells, up from 2,329 completions during the same period in 2012. There are presently about 3 times more oil wells being completed than natural gas wells. January 2013 crude oil production from Texas averaged 1.42 million barrels per day, up from the 1.06 million barrel per day average of January 2012. Texas oil and gas wells produced 532.7 Billion cubic feet of gas in January 2013, that’s down from the January 2012 gas production total of 533.5 Bcf. January 2013 natural gas production from Texas averaged just over 17.16 billion cubic feet per day. Over the last 12 months, total Texas reported production was 547 million barrels of oil and 7.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Texas production in January came from 146,106 oil wells and 91,975 natural gas wells.

*- Legislation Seeks to Fix Infrastructure Issues in Major Producing Basins
A Texas House Committee has approved a bill that would create a mechanism for Texas counties experiencing expanding oil and gas industry activity to dedicate monies towards county roads. During the boom of the Eagle Ford Shale in rural parts of south Texas and with the impending development of the Cline Shale in rural west central Texas - Local citizens and officials have been faced with severe traffic and road problems that the county’s rural road infrastructure were not ready to handle. Under the bill passed out of the house committee this week, count governments would be able to establish County Energy Transportation Reinvestment Zones. The bill gives county commissioners and county judges the authority to invest county tax revenue that is collected above a base-line level to put into the Transportation Reinvestment zones without being subject to a roll-back election. The base line level would be the amount of county tax revenue collected at the time that the Energy Transportation Reinvestment Zone was created. The incremental tax revenues placed into the fund could only be used towards county road projects, which have been affected by increased oil and gas production. The association representing county judges and county officials favor the bill, which is being sponsored by State Rep. Jim Keffer. Keffer said that the legislation is not a silver bullet to completely solve the county infrastructure problem, but would be a good tool that county governments could use. The bill will now be considered for passage for the full house.

*- Commission Approves Rule Changes Regarding Recycling Facilities
The Texas Railroad Commission has adopted rules designed to reduce permitting burdens on companies seeking to treat their oil & gas field salt water waste for reuse in frac’ing operations. The new rules adopted by the Commission eliminate the need for companies to obtain a recycling facility permit if operators are recycling fluids on their own lease or are transferring their fluids to an other operator’s lease for recycling. The rules still contain permitting requirements for commercial recycling facilities.

*- TIPRO Reports Continuing Upward Trend in Industry Employment
A study published by the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association shows that in 2012 the U.S. oil and gas industry employed 971,200 people, which is up 7 percent from the number of employed by the industry in 2011. The study showed that the total wages earned by those in the domestic oil and gas industry during 2012 was $104 billion, which is up 12 percent from 2011.


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Patrick C. Forbis    - Oil Industry Consultant on Regulatory Affairs -    Editor & Publisher - Texas Drilling Observer    The Oil & Gas Regulatory Report    & Statewide Regional Reporting Service      Texas Drilling Observer    P.O. Box 11648    Capitol Station    Austin, Texas -- United States    78711-1648         patrick@drillingobserver.com    +1- (512) - 826-3732 - CELL    +1- (512) - 372-9772 - OFFICE