1-1 By: Brown S.B. No. 1731
1-2 (In the Senate - Filed March 12, 1999; March 15, 1999, read
1-3 first time and referred to Committee on Natural Resources;
1-4 April 12, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 5,
1-5 Nays 0; April 12, 1999, sent to printer.)
1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-7 AN ACT
1-8 relating to the period during which the School Land Board may
1-9 reduce the royalty rate under certain oil and gas leases.
1-10 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11 SECTION 1. Subsections (c) and (d), Section 32.067, Natural
1-12 Resources Code, are amended to read as follows:
1-13 (c) The royalty rate for oil and gas produced from a
1-14 qualifying reservoir may be reduced to not less than one-sixteenth
1-15 (6.25 percent) for a term prescribed [not to exceed two years
1-16 unless extended at the reduced rate for additional periods not to
1-17 exceed two years on approval] by the board. In determining whether
1-18 to grant a reduction in the royalty rate, the board may consider
1-19 whether the qualifying property is being operated efficiently,
1-20 including whether the property is pooled or has reasonable
1-21 potential for the application of secondary or tertiary recovery
1-22 techniques.
1-23 (d) The royalty rate for the state's share under a lease
1-24 issued under Subchapter F, Chapter 52, or Sections 51.195(c)(2) and
1-25 (d) may be reduced under this section to not less than
1-26 one-thirty-second (3.125 percent) for a term prescribed [not to
1-27 exceed two years unless extended at the reduced rate for additional
1-28 periods not to exceed two years on approval] by the board. The
1-29 state's royalty rate may be reduced under this subsection only if
1-30 the royalty rate for the owner of the soil is reduced in the same
1-31 proportion.
1-32 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-33 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
1-34 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-35 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-36 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-37 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-38 * * * * *