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AUSTIN – The Railroad Commission of Texas assessed $2,425,495.50 in fines involving 597 enforcement dockets against operators and businesses at the Commissioners’ Conference on Tuesday. The Commission has primary oversight and enforcement of the state’s oil and gas industry and intrastate pipeline safety.

Fifty-nine dockets involved $1,010,697 in penalties after operators failed to appear at Commission enforcement proceedings. Master Default Orders can be found on the RRC Hearings Division webpage.

Operators were ordered to come into compliance with Commission rules and assessed $151,986 for any oil and gas, LP-Gas, critical infrastructure, or pipeline safety rule violations. Pipeline operators and excavators were assessed $1,262,812.50 for violations of the Commission’s Pipeline Damage Prevention rules. Master Agreed Orders can be found on the RRC General Counsel webpage.

In the absence of timely motions for rehearing, decisions are final as stated in these final orders.

AUSTIN – The state budget bill passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor on Sunday enhances the Railroad Commission’s work in regulating the oil and gas industry and serving Texans.

The bill provides the agency with approximately $481 million for the next two fiscal years.

The RRC regulates the major components of the state’s energy industry including oil and gas; surface mining of coal and uranium; the alternative fuels of LNG, CNG, and LPG; intrastate pipelines and natural gas utilities.

The energy industry is vital to Texas’ economic prosperity and the Legislature’s funding allows the RRC to continue its work in permitting, compliance and enforcement. The RRC consistently meets or exceeds important annual performance goals set by the Legislature that is tied to the agency’s funding.

The budget includes new funding to enhance the RRC’s work serving in public safety and environmental protection. Highlights include:

• Hiring up to 50 new pipeline safety professionals to enhance inspections of thousands of more miles of pipelines in Texas. A new federal law this year provides oversight of additional gathering lines to the RRC. Gathering lines are pipelines that are used to transport oil or natural gas from the production site to a central location. The number of RRC regulated gathering lines has now increased more than seven times to about 45,000 miles.
• Funding for new staff in the Oil and Gas Environmental Permits and Support Unit. The RRC has seen a significant workload increase over the last year following the enactment of legislation that encourages the recycling of fluid waste for beneficial purposes. Fluid oil and gas waste is waste containing salt, brine, hydraulic fracturing fluid, or other fluids that are the result of drilling for oil or gas. The additional staff would also assist in an anticipated increase in carbon capture permitting applications if the EPA grants the RRC primacy to oversee carbon capture applications.
• Funding for additional FLIR cameras will increase inspection capabilities in districts. The cameras have been used by the Commission for more than 10 years to detect emissions from wells and other oil and gas facilities during inspections.
• Digitization of records funding will help the agency continue its bold transparency initiatives with historical documents at the agency. The RRC was budgeted $1.9 million to create online access to millions more archived documents. Approximately 5 million documents from district offices throughout the state will be imaged so that the public can access the documents online without needing to travel.

AUSTIN – The Railroad Commission of Texas issued a total of 1,052 original drilling permits in March 2023. The total includes 922 to drill new oil or gas wells, 10 to re-enter plugged wellbores and 107 for re-completions of existing wellbores.

The breakdown of well types for total original drilling permits in March 2023 is: 272 oil, 55 gas, 672 oil and gas, 42 injection, one service, and 10 other permits.

In March 2023, Commission staff processed 1,126 oil, 260 gas and 836 injection completions for new drills, re-entries and re-completions.

Detailed data on drilling permits and well completions for the month can be found at this link:

https://www.rrc.texas.gov/oil-and-gas/research-and-statistics/drilling-information/monthly-drilling-completion-and-plugging-summaries/

TABLE 1 – MARCH 2023 TEXAS OIL AND GAS NEW DRILLING PERMITS AND COMPLETIONS BY RAILROAD COMMISSION OF TEXAS DISTRICT*

AUSTIN – Crude oil and natural gas production as reported to the Railroad Commission of Texas for October 2022 came from 161,356 oil wells and 80,281 gas wells.

The RRC reports that from November 2021 to October 2022, total Texas reported production was 1.5 billion barrels of crude oil and 11.2 trillion cubic feet of total gas. Crude oil production reported by the RRC is limited to oil produced from oil leases and does not include condensate, which is reported separately by the RRC.

For additional oil and gas production statistics, including the ranking of each Texas County by crude oil, total gas and condensate production, visit the RRC’s website at https://www.rrc.texas.gov/oil-and-gas/research-and-statistics/production-data/texas-monthly-oil-gas-production/.