Title NR, Natural Resources Code

Sec. 52.135. INSPECTIONS AND EXAMINATIONS. (a) The books and accounts, receipts, and discharges of all lines, tanks, pools, and meters and all contracts and other records relating to the production, transportation, sale, and marketing of the oil and gas are subject at any time to…

Sec. 52.136. LIEN. (a) The state has a statutory first lien on all oil and gas produced on any lease area to secure payment of unpaid royalty and other amounts due. (b) By acceptance of a lease, the lessee grants to the state an express contractual lien on and security interest i…

Sec. 52.137. SUIT AFTER PROTEST. (a) If a lessee, who has received an audit deficiency assessment and has waived the right to request a hearing before the commissioner or who is required by final order of the commissioner following a hearing to pay additional royalties, contends …

Sec. 52.139. LIMITATIONS ON AUDIT ASSESSMENTS. (a) If an audit billing notice has been issued under Section 52.135 and any outstanding audit deficiency assessment has been paid either: (1) voluntarily; (2) after a hearing was requested and the commissioner has entered a final non…

Sec. 52.140. AUDIT INFORMATION CONFIDENTIAL. (a) All information secured, derived, or obtained during the course of an inspection or examination of books, accounts, reports, or other records, as provided in Section 52.135 of this code, is confidential and may not be used publicly…

Sec. 52.151. AUTHORIZATION TO OPERATE AREAS AS UNITS. (a) The commissioner, on behalf of the state or any fund that belongs to the state, may execute agreements that provide for operating areas as a unit for the exploration, development, and production of oil or gas or both and t…

Sec. 52.152. APPROVAL OF AGREEMENTS. (a) An agreement must be approved by the board and executed by the commissioner to be effective if the agreement commits: (1) a royalty interest in land belonging to the permanent school fund or the asylum funds, in riverbeds, inland lakes, an…

Sec. 52.153. PROVISIONS OF AGREEMENT. (a) An agreement executed under this subchapter may include the following provisions: (1) that operations incident to drilling a well on any portion of a unit shall be considered for all purposes to be conduct of the operations on each tract …

Sec. 52.154. RATIFICATIONS AND OTHER AGREEMENTS. (a) The board may approve, by rule or order, a ratification or other agreement that includes in the benefits of production a mineral or royalty interest in land belonging to the permanent school fund or the asylum funds. (b) An agr…

Sec. 52.171. SCHOOL AND ASYLUM LANDS. The state hereby constitutes the owner of the soil its agent for the purposes herein named, and in consideration therefor, relinquishes and vests in the owner of the soil an undivided fifteen-sixteenths of all oil and gas which has been undev…

Sec. 52.172. SALE AND LEASE BY AGENT. The owner of said land is hereby authorized to sell or lease to any person, firm, or corporation the oil and gas that may be thereon or therein upon such terms and conditions as such owner may deem best, subject only to the provisions hereof,…

Sec. 52.173. OFFSET WELLS. (a) In this section: (1) "Horizontal drainhole well" means a well with a horizontal drainhole that may produce oil or gas along at least 100 feet of the drainhole. (2) "Take point" means any point in a horizontal drainhole well where oil or gas can be p…

Sec. 52.174. FAILURE TO DRILL OFFSET. If such persons fail or refuse to begin the drilling of such well or wells within the time required or to prosecute such drilling as necessary for the purpose intended herein, any lease of such land executed under the provisions of this law s…

Sec. 52.175. LEASE OF OIL AND GAS AFTER FORFEITURE. When the relinquishment or agency right herein granted has been forfeited, the land shall be subject to lease for oil and gas under the procedure provided by law for the leasing of unsold surveyed public school lands. The substa…

Sec. 52.176. FORFEITURE OF RIGHTS. If any person, firm, or corporation operating under this law shall fail or refuse to make the payment of any sum within 30 days after it becomes due, or if such one or an authorized agent should knowingly make any false return or false report co…

Sec. 52.177. RIGHTS OF SUBSEQUENT PURCHASER. If one acquires a valid right by permit or lease to the oil and gas in any unsold public free school or asylum land under any other law, a subsequent purchaser of such land shall not acquire any rights to any of the oil and gas that ma…

Sec. 52.178. OPERATION UNDER PERMIT. The owner of a permit or combination of permits shall have 18 months from the date or average date thereof in which to begin drilling a well for oil and gas on some portion of the land included therein. The drilling on one permit shall be suff…

Sec. 52.179. LEASE UNDER PERMIT. If oil or gas should be produced in paying quantities upon any land included in this law, the owner of the permit shall report the development to the commissioner within 30 days thereafter and apply for a lease upon such whole surveys or tracts in…

Sec. 52.180. PAYMENTS UNDER PERMIT. The owner of a permit or combination of permits who desires to avail himself of the terms of this law, shall pay the state 10 cents per acre, annually in advance, for the second and third years, and shall likewise pay the owner of the soil 10 c…

Sec. 52.181. RELINQUISHMENT UNDER PERMIT. The owner of a permit or combination of permits may relinquish to the state a permit or combination of permits or any whole survey or whole tract included in a permit at any time before obtaining a lease therefor by having such relinquish…

Sec. 52.182. DAMAGES TO SOIL. The payment of delay rentals and the obligation to pay the owner of the soil one-sixteenth of the production and the payment of same when produced and the acceptance of same by the owner, shall be in lieu of all damages to the soil. Acts 1977, 65th L…

Sec. 52.183. EFFECTIVE DATE OF LEASE. No mineral lease executed by the owner of the land or minerals under this subchapter is effective until a certified copy of the lease is filed in the land office. Acts 1977, 65th Leg., p. 2461, ch. 871, art. I, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1977.

Sec. 52.184. STATEMENT OF CONSIDERATION. No lease executed under this subchapter after September 17, 1939, is binding on the state unless it recites the actual and true consideration paid or promised. Acts 1977, 65th Leg., p. 2461, ch. 871, art. I, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1977.

Sec. 52.185. UNIVERSITY LAND. The provisions of this subchapter relating to a combination of permits and extension of time for beginning development and time for development applies to permits on university land. Acts 1977, 65th Leg., p. 2461, ch. 871, art. I, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. …

Sec. 52.186. LEASE OF CERTAIN MINERALS WHEN OWNER OF THE SOIL UNAVAILABLE. (a) If an owner of the soil or of any undivided interest therein of any land subject to the terms of this subchapter or Subchapter C, Chapter 53, of this code is found to be unavailable under Subsection (b…

Sec. 52.188. ASSIGNMENTS TO THE OWNER OF THE SOIL. (a) An owner of the soil may acquire by assignment a lease which he executed on land subject to the Relinquishment Act, Subchapter F, Chapter 52 of this code; however, such an assignment is subject to the terms of this section. (…

Sec. 52.189. AUTHORITY AND DUTIES OF AGENT. (a) Prohibition Against Self-Dealing. (1) The owner of the soil may not lease, either directly or indirectly, to himself or to a nominee, to any corporation or subsidiary in which he is a principal stockholder or to an employee of such …

Sec. 52.190. LEASE BY OWNER OF THE SOIL. (a) An owner of the soil of lands covered by this subchapter may lease those lands for the purpose of exploring for and producing oil and gas in the manner provided by this section. (b) An owner of the soil may apply in writing to the boar…

Sec. 52.291. COVERAGE. The following persons, agencies, and entities are subject to the provisions of Sections 52.292 through 52.293 of this code: (1) the commissioner; (2) the board; (3) boards for lease of land owned by a department, board, or agency of the state created by Cha…

Sec. 52.297. COMPENSATION FOR DAMAGES FROM USE OF SURFACE. (a) Leases issued under Subchapter B of this chapter for unsold surveyed or unsurveyed school land, other than land included in islands, saltwater lakes, bays, inlets, marshes, and reefs owned by the state in tidewater li…

Sec. 52.321. DEFINITIONS. In this subchapter: (1) "Geophysical exploration" means a survey or investigation conducted to discover or locate oil and gas prospects using magnetic, gravity, seismic, and/or electrical techniques. (2) "Geochemical exploration" means a survey or invest…

Sec. 52.322. PERMIT REQUIRED FOR EXPLORATION. (a) Except for a person who has a valid oil and gas lease on public school land authorized by this chapter, a person may not conduct geophysical or geochemical exploration on public school land unless the person obtains a permit from …

Sec. 52.323. APPLICATION FOR PERMIT. (a) The person responsible for conducting a geophysical or geochemical exploration is the person who must apply for a permit. (b) An application for a permit shall be made on a form prescribed by the commissioner and shall state the name and a…

Sec. 52.324. AUTHORITY OF COMMISSIONER. (a) The commissioner: (1) as a condition of issuing a permit, shall collect reasonable fees from the applicant in an amount determined by the commissioner; (2) may require a permittee to furnish to the commissioner, upon the commissioner's …

Sec. 52.325. PERMITTEE'S FAILURE TO COMPLY. (a) If a permittee fails to restore land in accordance with Section 52.324(a)(3) of this code and the rules of the commissioner, the commissioner and any surface lessee may maintain an action against the permittee for actual damages to …