Texas Administrative Code
Title 16 - ECONOMIC REGULATION
Part 1 - RAILROAD COMMISSION OF TEXAS
Chapter 3 - OIL AND GAS DIVISION
Section 3.16 - Log and Completion or Plugging Report
Current through Reg. 49, No. 12; March 22, 2024
(a) Definitions. The following words and terms, when used in this section, shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
(b) Completion and plugging reports.
(c) Electric logs. Except as otherwise provided in this section, not later than the 90th day after the date a drilling operation is completed, the operator shall file with the commission a legible and unaltered copy of an electric log, except that where a well is deepened, a legible and unaltered copy of an electric log shall be filed if such log is run over a deeper interval than the interval covered by an electric log for the well already on file with the commission. In the event an electric log, as defined in this section, has not been run, subject to the commission's approval, the operator shall file a lithology log or gamma ray log of the entire wellbore. In the event no log has been run over the entire wellbore, subject to the commission's approval, the operator shall file the log which is the most nearly complete of the logs run. An electric log shall be filed with the commission electronically in a digital format acceptable to the commission, when the commission has the technological capability to receive the electronic filing. Nothing in this subsection requires an operator to run an electric log in conjunction with the drilling or deepening of a well.
(d) Delayed filing based on confidentiality. Each log filed with the commission shall be considered public information and shall be available to the public during normal business hours. If the operator of a well desires a log to be confidential, on or before the 90th day after the date a drilling operation is completed, the operator must submit to the Oil and Gas Division in Austin a written request for a delayed filing of the log. If a well is drilled on land submerged in state water, when filing such a request, the operator must retain the log and may delay filing such log for five years beginning from the date the drilling operation was completed. For any other well, the operator must retain the log and may delay filing such log for three years beginning from the date the drilling operation was completed. Logs must be filed with the commission within 30 days after the expiration of the confidentiality period.
(e) Sanctions. If an operator fails to file a completion report or log in accordance with the provisions of this section, the commission may refuse to assign an allowable to a well, set the allowable for such well at zero, and/or initiate penalty action pursuant to the Texas Natural Resources Code, Title 3.