The Railroad Commission of Texas, the state’s oil and gas regulator, collected nearly $20 million in fines from the oil, gas and pipeline operators in 2016, according to the commission’s year in review report released Tuesday.
The fines were nearly split between pipeline operators, at $4.5 million, and oil and gas operators, at $4 million. Operators can face heavy fines if they violate state regulations such as not clearly marking equipment or failing to plug inactive wells. But those numbers are a fraction of the agency’s projected revenue for this year, more than $69 million, which it collects mostly from industry fees and accounts for more than 75 percent of its budget.
In 2016, the commission also took steps to reduce violations by granting operators immunity if violations were self-reported. As a part of a larger initiative to ease regulations, the commission adopted self-audit policies this year, encouraging companies to report violations without having to face a fine. The immunity does not apply to violations that were intentionally committed or those deemed “reckless” by the commission; nor does the immunity apply to violations that resulted in “substantial economic benefit,” according to the commission’s year-end report. The report did not provide numbers of violations that were self-reported.
The agency’s inspection division, charged with responding to complaints and finding possible violations, is understaffed. The agency employs 138 oil and gas well inspectors, 63 pipeline inspectors and 12 inspectors who oversee alternative fuels, such as liquefied natural gas. Overall, inspectors completed 124,000 inspections in 2016, slightly down from the 134,000 inspections completed last year.
This article originally appeared on the Houston Chronicle, which has a content partnership with Energy Voice. Read more Houston news here.
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