R-2016-081 2016-05-09 RESOLUTION No. R2016-81
A Resolution by the City Council of the City of Pearland,
Texas, supporting an improved statutory procedure that
provides for unitization of depleted Texas Gulf Coast oil
fields; and setting forth related matters thereto.
WHEREAS, the City of Pearland is desiring to establish additional capital
investment and the creation of new jobs that will benefit all residents of Pearland, Texas,
and
WHEREAS, the State of Texas leads the nation in advanced technology to
revive depleting legacy oilfields through tertiary enhanced oil recovery via carbon
dioxide injection (CO 2 EOR), and
WHEREAS, the Texas Gulf Coast region has more than two billion barrels
of recoverable stranded oil reserves that can only be produced through CO2 EOR, and
WHEREAS, CO 2 EOR offers an important means to achieve U.S. energy
independence and also provides significant environmental benefits through the
associated long term storage of CO 2 that would otherwise be vented into the
atmosphere, and
WHEREAS, encouraging CO 2 EOR projects in the Texas Gulf Coast will also
encourage new industry that can partner with the oilfield to provide new capital
investment, high wage jobs and result in a broader tax base through new services,
materials sales and field environmental improvements that support our communities,
and
WHEREAS, Texas is the only top-ten U.S. oil and gas producing state that
requires 100 percent approval of new field operations units on a voluntary basis, and
WHEREAS, a statutory unitization procedure to support full field tertiary re-
development of older, depleted oilfields is necessary in order to utilize CO 2 EOR, and
WHEREAS, the lack of a statutory unitization procedure that protects the
correlative rights of mineral interest and royalty owners inhibits CO 2 EOR
development, and
RESOLUTION No. R2016-81
WHEREAS, Texas energy and conservation policy should support such a
procedure that honors the development wishes of a supermajority of interest owners,
and
WHEREAS, the City of Pearland has received direct benefit from CO 2 FOR
projects, creating jobs, capital investment, and overall improvement to our local
economy, and
WHEREAS, the City Council has considered the matter and deems it in
the public interest to authorize this action, and
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PEARLAND, TEXAS:
Section 1. That the City Council supports an improved statutory procedure that
provides for unitization of depleted Texas Gulf Coast oilfields.
PASSED, APPROVED and ADOPTED this the 9th day of May,
A.D., 2016.
TOM RE
MAYOR
ATTEST:
Y• G LO'. I G, TRJ / .v �,
SECT ARY :`
APPROVED AS TO FORM:
DARRI M. COKER
CITY ATTORNEY