American Oil and Gas Reporter - October 2017 - 88

mation below. However, because so many
leases now have depth severance clauses
and because there are Permian Basin
wells in stacked plays, there could be
other acreage at depth owned by another
producer who needs the same surface
acreage for his production. One company
may own the drilling rights from the surface down to a certain depth, and someone
else may own the producing rights for
depths below that. In that case, you could
have the same surface acreage needing
to be assigned to develop two wells producing from different formations. The
question is, how would that permitting
process work?"
RRC regulations for acreage assignment must keep evolving for the new
horizontal world, he says, and assigning
surface acreage to more than one well is
part of that evolution. "Because of those
depth severance clauses, there now is the
possibility of not just two but three or
more ownerships at different depths.
There is not an RRC process where you
can get permits to drill those deeper
depths, because you can't get acreage
assigned to them," Robertson says.
He reports PBPA and other Texas
trade associations are working with RRC
staff to resolve the issue. Encouragingly,
he adds commission staff members are

aware of these issues and appear to be
willing to assist industry in working
toward solutions.
RRC And Sunset
2017 saw resolution of a major PBPA
priority-RRC reauthorization, Robertson
says. With the reauthorization behind it,
the RRC will be able to focus on doing
its regulatory job again, he predicts.
"Life will be different, because the
agency staff has had to focus on authorization of the agency so much. Having
gone over that issue three times in the
past four sessions, it will be wonderful
not having to look at it again for another
10 years-the process is set up for the
agency to be authorized for another 12
years, but I am sure two years out we will
have to start gathering the troops again to
work on the next sunset process," he says.
In addition to completing the sunset
review process, he points out, the agency
also secured an increase in its allocation
from the state treasury.
"There was great clamoring from the
governor and lieutenant governor that
everyone was going to take a haircut as
far as state agencies went, but the RRC
was able to get a funding increase,"
Robertson says. "That will allow it to
work on some staff and technology inef-

ficiencies, which will benefit the industry
and the residents of Texas."
The state government made RRC reauthorization a priority, Robertson applauds,
noting that it was the first sunset bill that
came up in the House, the first sunset
bill that passed both chambers, and the
first one to arrive at the governor's desk.
"Everybody from the industry, the commission, as well as state legislators, realize
the importance of having a strong and
well-defined oil and gas regulator for the
state," he assesses.
Dark Skies
West Texas continues to stand out for
its relative lack of artificial light, and the
oil and gas industry continues its efforts to
help facilities such as the University of
Texas' McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis,
Tx., reap the benefits of that darkness,
Robertson describes. PBPA is working with
the observatory in a Dark Skies Initiative
to distribute recommended lighting practices
to oil companies operating close by.
"The Dark Skies initiative is one of
those projects we have to continue to
beat the drums on, educate people and
get the information out, because that is
the only way you will make an impact,"
Robertson says. He adds that the association and observatory have been working

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