The Texas Senate Committee on Natural Resources met this week to discuss legislative solutions to oilfield theft in the state.<\/p>\n
According to data provided by the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers during the hearing on Monday, oilfield theft in Texas could have a $4.3 billion annual economic impact.<\/p>\n
Several cases<\/a> of oilfield theft have made headlines recently, including a recent case<\/a> involving Texas and Oklahoma that resulted in a series of search and arrest warrants across several counties in both states.<\/p>\n Oilfield theft is not limited just to crude oil; it also includes equipment and vehicle theft.<\/p>\n Oilfield theft crimes, and specifically crude oil theft, tend to be committed as part of complex organized criminal networks due to the level of sophistication required to steal the oil.<\/p>\n Senate Bill (SB) 494<\/a>, passed in the 89th Legislature, created the State Taskforce on Petroleum Theft<\/a> under the Texas Railroad Commission. Other significant legislation passed last session includes SB 1806<\/a>, which increased criminal punishment related to oilfield theft, and House Bill 48<\/a>, which created a theft prevention unit within the Department of Public Safety (DPS).<\/p>\n Prosecutions of oilfield theft cases were highlighted during hearing testimonies, as the topic has proved particularly problematic for lawmakers and law enforcement. State Sen. Pete Flores (R-Pleasanton) said during the hearing that the current apprehension rate for oilfield thefts is 2 percent, and the prosecution rate is 1 percent.<\/p>\n During the hearing\u2019s second panel, Loving County Constable Brandon Jones stated about prosecuting such crimes, \u201cFrom my perspective, I’ve seen as many unicorns as I\u2019ve seen cases prosecuted in Loving County \u2014 we haven’t had any prosecution.<\/p>\n \u201cThe avenues are not there,\u201d he affirmed.<\/p>\n Michael Lozano, Vice President of Government Affairs of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, said during the hearing\u2019s first panel that prosecution was “the next needle to move\u201d in the state\u2019s push to address the problem.<\/p>\n The Texan spoke with Lozano more extensively about the topic.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a resource-intensive process,\u201d he said about prosecution. \u201cThere have been some real severe deficiencies in investigating and prosecuting these crimes \u2014 and again, not to beleaguer the issue from law enforcement\u2019s side or the investigator\u2019s side, but that is happening because it is an area the size of Minnesota.\u201d<\/p>\n Challenges like funding, recruitment, training, and multi-department cooperation all contribute to prosecutorial stagnation.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is just not the bandwidth,\u201d Lozano affirmed.<\/p>\n On the other hand, Lozano stated that the DPS\u2019 theft unit has seen success in its recent dealings.<\/p>\n \u201cEffectively, it was an unenforced crime that is now being enforced, and that attention has been helpful,\u201d Lozano said.<\/p>\n He called SB 1806 a \u201cgame-changer\u201d because it \u201cgave statewide jurisdiction to the [DPS] to investigate,\u201d and added that the bill better streamlined the prosecution process.<\/p>\n Panelists conceded that in addition to prosecution, the reporting of theft remains one of the main challenges being tackled currently. Lack of reporting by operators largely stems from tax laws the state requirements of operators, who must pay severance taxes on any oil that has been produced and measured.<\/p>\n Committee Chairman Kevin Sparks (R-Midland) questioned panelists about the loss of tax revenue to the state in the context of theft.<\/p>\n Karr Ingham, president of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, responded that \u201cunfortunately for the operator,\u201d the state does not lose as much revenue, because the operator is still required to pay severance tax on the stolen oil.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a double hit that that guy is taking,\u201d Ingham said about the hypothetical operator. \u201cHis incentive is high not to report.\u201d<\/p>\n Ingham continued, \u201cThere\u2019s not a great solution to that, but [we want to make] sure that we don\u2019t penalize an operator for reporting that information \u2014 because he is penalized right now.\u201d<\/p>\n However, he affirmed to Sparks that the state does lose revenue from sales taxes, motor vehicle taxes, hotel taxes, and royalty payments when oilfield theft occurs.<\/p>\n State Sen. Tan Parker (R-Flower Mound) asked panelists whether they felt the topic had \u201cadequate awareness,\u201d to which DPS Captain Tim Murphy stated, \u201cI think we\u2019ve put a pretty big scare into a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n Murphy continued, \u201cWe\u2019ve heard rumors that it’s been difficult for [thieves] to sell the oil that they\u2019ve stolen, and that they\u2019re looking for different people to shovel it off to.\u201d<\/p>\n Panelists generally conceded that the steps being taken in the Legislature were having a positive impact on the issue, even though solutions take time to implement.<\/p>\n Murphy detailed that in the DPS\u2019 first year of operating their Organized Oilfield Theft Prevention Unit, the unit arrested 289 people, as well as seized $11.4 million in currency, over 98,000 barrels of crude oil, 107 stolen vehicles and trailers, and $16 million of other equipment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Texas Senate Committee on Natural Resources met this week to discuss legislative solutions to oilfield theft in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[153924,76232,19797,153922,153923,27,2785,12835,29,28,69324,1863],"class_list":["post-446278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-committee-on-natural-resources","tag-crude-oil","tag-michael-lozano","tag-oilfield-theft","tag-stoptheft","tag-texas","tag-texas-dps","tag-texas-energy","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-oil","tag-texas-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}