Sec. 86.012. DEFINITION OF WASTE. (a) The term "waste" includes:

(1) the operation of an oil well or wells with an inefficient gas-oil ratio;

(2) the drowning with water of a stratum or part of a stratum capable of producing gas in paying quantities;

(3) permitting a gas well to burn wastefully;

(4) the creation of unnecessary fire hazards;

(5) physical waste or loss incident to or resulting from so drilling, equipping, or operating a well or wells as to reduce or tend to reduce the ultimate recovery of gas from any pool;

(6) the escape of gas from a well producing both oil and gas into the open air in excess of the amount that is necessary in the efficient drilling or operation of the well;

(7) the production of gas in excess of transportation or market facilities or reasonable market demand for the type of gas produced;

(8) the use of gas for the manufacture of carbon black without first having extracted the natural gasoline content from the gas, except it shall not be necessary to first extract the natural gasoline content from the gas where it is utilized in a plant producing an average recovery of not less than five pounds of carbon black to each 1,000 cubic feet of gas;

(9) the use of sweet gas produced from a gas well for the manufacture of carbon black unless it is used in a plant producing an average recovery of not less than five pounds of carbon black to each 1,000 cubic feet and unless the sweet gas is produced from a well located in a common reservoir producing both sweet and sour gas;

(10) permitting gas produced from a gas well to escape into the air before or after the gas has been processed for its gasoline content, unless authorized as provided in Section 86.185 of this code;

(11) the production of natural gas from a well producing oil from a stratum other than that in which the oil is found unless the gas is produced in a separate string of casing from that in which the oil is produced;

(12) the production of more than 100,000 cubic feet of gas to each barrel of crude petroleum oil unless the gas is put to one or more of the uses authorized for the type of gas so produced under allocations made by the commission or unless authorized as provided in Section 86.185 of this code; and

(13) underground waste or loss however caused and whether or not defined in other subdivisions of this section.

(b) Notwithstanding the provisions contained in this section or elsewhere in this code or in other statutes or laws, the commission may permit production by commingling oil or gas or oil and gas from multiple stratigraphic or lenticular accumulations of oil or gas or oil and gas where the commission, after notice and opportunity for hearing, has found that producing oil or gas or oil and gas in a commingled state will prevent waste, promote conservation, or protect correlative rights.

Acts 1977, 65th Leg., p. 2532, ch. 871, art. I, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1977. Amended by Acts 1977, 65th Leg., p. 2695, ch. 871, art. II, Sec. 8, eff. Sept. 1, 1977; Acts 1979, 66th Leg., p. 674, ch. 300, Sec. 2, eff. May 29, 1979; Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 870, Sec. 2, eff. Sept. 1, 1995.