LEGISLATIVE BUDGET BOARD

Austin, Texas

FISCAL NOTE, 79TH LEGISLATIVE REGULAR SESSION

March 7, 2005

TO:	Honorable Kenneth Armbrister, Chair, Senate Committee on Natural Resources
FROM:	John S. O'Brien, Deputy Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:	SB575 by Armbrister (Relating to notice to surface owners of oil and gas exploration and production operations.), As Introduced

No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.

The bill would require an oil and gas developer to provide written notice to each surface owner at least 30 days before any oil and gas exploration and production operations, unless the oil and gas lease will terminate in less than 30 days, in which case the oil and gas developer may give notice at any time before operations begin. The written notice would be provided by mail to the surface owner's address.

Assuming the Railroad Commission would not be required to verify and monitor all notices provided by oil and gas developers to surface owners, the bill is not expected to result in a signficant workload increase at the agency.

Local Government Impact

The bill could impact a local government that also is the surface owner because the local government would be required to pay the cos of notifying affected surface land owners. The bill also could delay recovery of minerals in a case where the local government is the mineral owner, but not the surface owner.

Source Agencies:

455 Railroad Commission

LBB Staff:

JOB, WK, ZS, TL, KJG