Opinion ID: 2429351
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Natural Resources Code

Text: The MIPA allows the commission to pool two or more separately owned tracts of land that are embraced in a common reservoir of oil and gas for which the commission has established the size and shape of proration units.... Tex.Nat.Res.Code § 102.011. The MIPA does not define common reservoir. However, chapter 86 of the Natural Resources Code defines it as: [A]ll or part of any oil or gas field or oil and gas field that comprises and includes any area that is underlaid or that, from geological or other scientific data or experiments or from drilling operations or other evidence, appears to be underlaid by a common pool or accumulation of oil or gas or oil and gas. Id. § 86.002(4). Chapter 85 states that the term common reservoir means common pool, pool, field, or common source of supply. Id. § 85.001(a)(2). Pool means an underground reservoir containing a connected accumulation of crude petroleum oil, or natural gas, or both. Id. § 85.001(a)(3). None of these definitions addresses the specific issue here. In 1979 and 1981, the legislature enacted what are commonly referred to as the commingling statutes. See Tex.Nat.Res.Code §§ 85.046, 85.053, 85.055, 86.012, 86.081. Since their enactment, the commission's position has been that it has the power to pool lenticular reservoirs, not in natural communication but in man-made communication, as if they are a common reservoir. [8] The court of appeals below held that the commission had no such authority. 788 S.W.2d at 883. The court relied on Railroad Commission of Texas v. Bishop Petroleum, Inc., which addressed the same issue. 736 S.W.2d 724 (Tex.App.Waco 1987), affd in part & rev'd in part on other grounds per curiam, 751 S.W.2d 485 (Tex.1988). Both the Bishop court and the court below adopted the definition of common reservoir enunciated by this court in the cases of Railroad Commission of Texas v. Graford Oil Corp., 557 S.W.2d 946 (Tex.1977), and Gage v. Railroad Commission of Texas, 582 S.W.2d 410 (Tex.1979).