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Texas Government Code - Section 552.113. Exception: Geological Or Geophysical Information

Legal Research Home > Texas Lawyer > Government Code > Texas Government Code - Section 552.113. Exception: Geological Or Geophysical Information

§ 552.113. EXCEPTION:  GEOLOGICAL OR GEOPHYSICAL 
INFORMATION.  (a) Information is excepted from the requirements of 
Section 552.021 if it is:
		(1)  an electric log confidential under Subchapter M, 
Chapter 91, Natural Resources Code; 
		(2)  geological or geophysical information or data, 
including maps concerning wells, except information filed in 
connection with an application or proceeding before an agency;  or
		(3)  confidential under Subsections (c) through (f).                          
	(b)  Information that is shown to or examined by an employee 
of the General Land Office, but not retained in the land office, is 
not considered to be filed with the land office.
	(c)  In this section:                                                          
		(1)  "Confidential material" includes all well logs, 
geological, geophysical, geochemical, and other similar data, 
including maps and other interpretations of the material filed in 
the General Land Office:
			(A)  in connection with any administrative 
application or proceeding before the land commissioner, the school 
land board, any board for lease, or the commissioner's or board's 
staff;  or
			(B)  in compliance with the requirements of any 
law, rule, lease, or agreement.
		(2)  "Basic electric logs" has the same meaning as it 
has in Chapter 91, Natural Resources Code.
		(3)  "Administrative applications" and "administrative 
proceedings" include applications for pooling or unitization, 
review of shut-in royalty payments, review of leases or other 
agreements to determine their validity, review of any plan of 
operations, review of the obligation to drill offset wells, or an 
application to pay compensatory royalty.
	(d)  Confidential material, except basic electric logs, 
filed in the General Land Office on or after September 1, 1985, is 
public information and is available to the public under Section 
552.021 on and after the later of:
		(1)  five years from the filing date of the 
confidential material;  or      
		(2)  one year from the expiration, termination, or 
forfeiture of the lease in connection with which the confidential 
material was filed.
	(e)  Basic electric logs filed in the General Land Office on 
or after September 1, 1985, are either public information or 
confidential material to the same extent and for the same periods 
provided for the same logs by Chapter 91, Natural Resources Code.  A 
person may request that a basic electric log that has been filed in 
the General Land Office be made confidential by filing with the land 
office a copy of the written request for confidentiality made to the 
Railroad Commission of Texas for the same log.
	(f)  The following are public information:                                     
		(1)  basic electric logs filed in the General Land 
Office before September 1, 1985;  and
		(2)  confidential material, except basic electric 
logs, filed in the General Land Office before September 1, 1985, 
provided, that Subsection (d) governs the disclosure of that 
confidential material filed in connection with a lease that is a 
valid and subsisting lease on September 1, 1995.
	(g)  Confidential material may be disclosed at any time if 
the person filing the material, or the person's successor in 
interest in the lease in connection with which the confidential 
material was filed, consents in writing to its release.  A party 
consenting to the disclosure of confidential material may restrict 
the manner of disclosure and the person or persons to whom the 
disclosure may be made.
	(h)  Notwithstanding the confidential nature of the material 
described in this section, the material may be used by the General 
Land Office in the enforcement, by administrative proceeding or 
litigation, of the laws governing the sale and lease of public lands 
and minerals, the regulations of the land office, the school land 
board, or of any board for lease, or the terms of any lease, pooling 
or unitization agreement, or any other agreement or grant.
	(i)  An administrative hearings officer may order that 
confidential material introduced in an administrative proceeding 
remain confidential until the proceeding is finally concluded, or 
for the period provided in Subsection (d), whichever is later.
	(j)  Confidential material examined by an administrative 
hearings officer during the course of an administrative proceeding 
for the purpose of determining its admissibility as evidence shall 
not be considered to have been filed in the General Land Office to 
the extent that the confidential material is not introduced into 
evidence at the proceeding.
	(k)  This section does not prevent a person from asserting 
that any confidential material is exempt from disclosure as a trade 
secret or commercial information under Section 552.110 or under any 
other basis permitted by law.

Added by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 268, § 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1993.  
Amended by Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 1035, § 8, eff. Sept. 1, 
1995.

Last modified: August 11, 2007