By:  Brown                                             S.B. No. 813
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to the lien of the Railroad Commission of Texas on
 1-2     well-site equipment to secure the cost of plugging an oil or gas
 1-3     well.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subsection (c), Section 89.043, Natural Resources
 1-6     Code, is amended to read as follows:
 1-7           (c)  On or before the 30th day before the date the commission
 1-8     enters into a contract to plug a delinquent inactive well, the
 1-9     commission shall send a notice by certified mail to the operator of
1-10     the well at the address last reported to the commission as required
1-11     by Section 91.142 [of this code] and commission rules.  The notice
1-12     shall direct the operator to plug the well and shall state that:
1-13                 (1)  the commission may plug the well unless the
1-14     operator requests a hearing not later than the 10th day after the
1-15     date the operator receives the notice;
1-16                 (2)  if the commission plugs the well, all well-site
1-17     equipment will be presumed to have been abandoned and the
1-18     commission may dispose of the equipment and hydrocarbons from the
1-19     well as provided by Section 89.085 [of this code]; [and]
1-20                 (3)  the attorney general may file suit against the
1-21     operator to recover the plugging costs if the commission plugs the
1-22     well and the operator fails to reimburse the commission for the
1-23     plugging costs; and
1-24                 (4)  the commission has a lien on all well-site
 2-1     equipment under Section 89.083.
 2-2           SECTION 2.  Subsection (e), Section 89.083, Natural Resources
 2-3     Code, is amended to read as follows:
 2-4           (e)  The lien is extinguished as to any item of well-site
 2-5     equipment that is lawfully removed by any person other than the
 2-6     operator or a nonoperator pursuant to a lien, lease, judgment,
 2-7     written contract, or security agreement before the commission sends
 2-8     notice under Section 89.043(c) [enters into a plugging contract].
 2-9     A person may not remove from an inactive well site any equipment
2-10     [Equipment] necessary to prevent the well from serving as a conduit
2-11     for the passage of oil, gas, saltwater, oil and gas wastes, or
2-12     freshwater from one stratum or formation to another or to the
2-13     surface or from the surface downward [may not be removed from an
2-14     inactive well site] except in the course of plugging in accordance
2-15     with commission rules.
2-16           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-17     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-18     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-19     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-20     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-21     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-22     passage, and it is so enacted.