By Hawley H.B. No. 3696
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the approval of assignments of oil and gas leases
1-3 covering certain state land.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 52.026, Natural Resources Code, is
1-6 amended by amending Subsection (a) and by adding Subsection (e) to
1-7 read as follows:
1-8 (a) A lessee of an area under this subchapter may transfer
1-9 the [his] lease at any time. The liability of the transferor to
1-10 properly discharge its obligations under the lease, including
1-11 properly plugging abandoned wells, removing platforms or pipelines,
1-12 or remediation of contamination at drill sites shall pass to the
1-13 transferee upon prior written consent of the commissioner. The
1-14 commissioner may not withhold the consent unreasonably. The
1-15 commissioner may require the transferee to demonstrate that it has
1-16 the financial responsibility to properly discharge its obligations
1-17 under the lease and may require the transferee to post a bond or
1-18 provide other security to secure those obligations if the
1-19 transferee is unable to demonstrate such financial responsibility
1-20 to the satisfaction of the commissioner.
1-21 (e) This section does not relieve a person from the duty to
1-22 comply with a rule adopted or order issued by the Railroad
1-23 Commission of Texas under another provision of this code.
1-24 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-1 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-2 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-3 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-4 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-5 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.