UNIMAGINABLE WASTE
In light of the manifest benefits wrought by oil and gas, it is perhaps a damning indictment that, since their discovery, we have managed to find a way to waste them.
An Article By the Texas Tech Law Review and Currently in the American Association of Petroleum Landman Bulletin.
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"If the prevention of waste of natural resources such as gas is to await the time when direct and immediate profits can be realized from the operation, there would have been little need for the people of Texas to have amended their Constitution by declaring that the preservation and conservation of natural resources of the State are public rights and duties and directing that the Legislature pass such laws as may be appropriate thereto … for private enterprise would not need the compulsion of law to conserve these resources if the practice were financially profitable."
I am very unclear, and will apparently remain very unclear, how just three people in all of Texas can have so much control over the future of oil and gas in our great nation.
I speak of three Texas Railroad Commissioners who have single handedly decided what is best for Texas, and for America. In doing so they have completely violated the rule of law in Texas. That law is set forth in the Texas Natural Resources Code that is part of our State's Constitution. These three individuals have neglected resource waste, like flaring, conservation of our States natural resources, pressure preservation of oil reservoirs to maximize recovery rates and have failed to protect the correlative rights of all Texans. My "rights," as a Texans, entail that hydrocarbons are preserved for my children's future.
Lets take a look at the age old excuse of "it takes time to build gas gathering infrastructure..."
These dudes in the Delaware Basin knew 5 years ago exactly how many drilling locations they had left. The brag about it on investor presentations. They file drilling permits two years in advance, build source water infrastructure in advance, build pads and set conductor pipe a year in advance and they can't get pipe in the ground to gather gas before they spud?
Why does it often take a year or more of flaring in he Delaware when there is gas gathering infrastructure everywhere?
Left, September 1 2022 flaring in the Permian.
In the end, and we are there, the final depletion of our country's sovereign resources should not be controlled by private enterprise but by regulations, and regulators, with the nuts to do the right thing.
Gracias, Juanito, for providing this to article to me. We share many things you and I, none more important than a hundred years of actual, real life oil experience in Texas, love for our State, our Country, the environment, and what is best for our children's future. It is not necessary that we always agree, only that we trust in each others beliefs.
I do.