By Lewis of Orange                                    H.B. No. 3004
         76R6334 SMH-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the lien of the Railroad Commission of Texas on
 1-3     well-site equipment to secure the cost of plugging an oil or gas
 1-4     well.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 89.043(c), Natural Resources Code, is
 1-7     amended to read as follows:
 1-8           (c)  On or before the 30th day before the date the commission
 1-9     enters into a contract to plug a delinquent inactive well, the
1-10     commission shall send a notice by certified mail to the operator of
1-11     the well at the address last reported to the commission as required
1-12     by Section 91.142 [of this code] and commission rules.  The notice
1-13     shall direct the operator to plug the well and shall state that:
1-14                 (1)  the commission may plug the well unless the
1-15     operator requests a hearing not later than the 10th day after the
1-16     date the operator receives the notice;
1-17                 (2)  if the commission plugs the well, all well-site
1-18     equipment will be presumed to have been abandoned and the
1-19     commission may dispose of the equipment and hydrocarbons from the
1-20     well as provided by Section 89.085 [of this code]; [and]
1-21                 (3)  the attorney general may file suit against the
1-22     operator to recover the plugging costs if the commission plugs the
1-23     well and the operator fails to reimburse the commission for the
1-24     plugging costs; and
 2-1                 (4)  the commission has a lien on all well-site
 2-2     equipment under Section 89.083.
 2-3           SECTION 2.  Section 89.083(e), Natural Resources Code, is
 2-4     amended to read as follows:
 2-5           (e)  The lien is extinguished as to any item of well-site
 2-6     equipment that is lawfully removed by any person other than the
 2-7     operator or a nonoperator pursuant to a lien, lease, judgment,
 2-8     written contract, or security agreement before the commission sends
 2-9     notice under Section 89.043(c) [enters into a plugging contract].
2-10     A person may not remove from an inactive well site any equipment
2-11     [Equipment] necessary to prevent the well from serving as a conduit
2-12     for  the passage of oil, gas, saltwater, oil and gas wastes, or
2-13     freshwater from one stratum or formation to another or to the
2-14     surface or from the surface downward [may not be removed from an
2-15     inactive well site] except in the course of plugging in accordance
2-16     with commission rules.
2-17           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-18     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-19     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-20     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-21     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-22     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-23     passage, and it is so enacted.