Holiday Office Closure

In observance of the Christmas holidays, Railroad Commission of Texas offices will be closed December 23-27. The offices will re-open at 8 a.m. on Monday, December 30 for regular business. Expedited Drilling Permits will be processed within standard processing times. If assistance is needed, please email Drillingpermits-info@rrc.texas.gov.
RRC maintains a 24-hour emergency phone line to report any leaks or spills. That number is 844-773-0305

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Oil and Gas Statewide Rule 101

Approved Tight Gas Formation Listing

Rule 101 Area Designation Applications and ST-1 Standard Operating Procedures

After November 2019, only On-Line ST-1 applications are accepted.  A valid Area Designation Docket Number is required before an ST-1 on-line filing will be accepted.  ST-1’s with invalid Area Designation numbers will be Withdrawn Automatically.  The Applicant is responsible for locating Docket numbers of approved Area Designations.  Docket Numbers for recently filed and in process Area Designations can be found in the CASES system through the user interface.  Applicants apply for new Area Designation via email and receive the new Cases number via email.  https://www.rrc.texas.gov/hearings/rrc-cases/

ST-1’s shall not be filed prior to the creation of a valid Area Designation Application.  A valid Docket Application exists when it is assigned a Area Designation Docket Number in the CASES system. ST-1’s shall have a valid Area Designation Docket ID entered in the ST-1 Online system.

  • 3.101 (SWR 101), Certification for Severance Tax Exemption for Gas Produced from High-Cost Gas Wells-Area Designation. Oil and Gas Division, Permitting/ Production Services Section turnaround time frame: Application Review 7 days, Processing 45 days (§1.201).
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GAU average processing times for SWR 101 Area Designation applications is 52 days.  GAU Average processing times for ST-1 applications is under 2 weeks.  Any ST-1 applications remaining in First or Second Rejection Status, and resident in the applicant’s queue for longer than 30 days, must have a valid reason for remaining in the ST-1 application queue otherwise the application will be denied.  Acceptable reasons for residing in the applicant queue longer than 30 days include: 

  • Waiting on RRC Compliance to assign a Gas ID (valid until 30 days after disposition is provided by RRC Completions Department)
  • Waiting on the Hearings Department (valid until 30 days after disposition is provided by Hearings Department)

Reasons for residing in the applicant’s queue for up to 30 days:

  • Missing data or incorrect data in required field(s) and Operator response required (Only valid for 30 days from date of rejection)
  • Waiting on Operator to submit a G-1 reclassification application (Only valid for 30 days from date of rejection)
  • Waiting on Approval of the Area Designation (only valid if Area Designation has not yet been approved or denied)

Please review your outstanding ST-1 applications in First and Second rejection status and determine which category they fall under.  GAU shall Withdraw all applications in the queue older than 30 days that are not waiting on the RRC Completions or Hearings Departments.

This is the current Index of area designations set up by geological formation and field, docket numbers, and approved dates.

The page number provided in the index refers to the actual page in the Approved Tight Formation Area Certifications publication.

the following links are PDFsPDF file



Commissioners