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Committee advances bill allowing transfer of acreage between brine units under Oil and Gas Commission oversight
Summary
House Bill 1413 would let brine producers move acreage from one operating unit to another for production efficiency, with oversight and approval required from the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission. Sponsor and an industry representative said mineral owners' royalty rights would remain intact; no public opposition was recorded.
House Bill 1413 was advanced by the Arkansas Senate Committee on Agriculture, Forestry & Economic Development after sponsor Senator Matt Stone and an industry representative described how the measure would allow producers to move acreage between brine operating units with regulatory oversight.
Senator Matt Stone, R‑District 2, told the committee that the bill would permit producers to shift acreage from one brine operating unit to another for production efficiency while preserving royalty owners' rights. "Everything done under this bill would be regulated by the Oil and Gas Commission and no acreage could be moved from one unit to the other without the oversight and permission of the Oil and Gas Commission," Stone said.
Industry witness Mark Day, who identified himself as public relations and land manager at Linksys in El Dorado, described his company's three brine operating units — West, Central and South — and said they sought the ability to move wells and acreage from the Central unit to the West unit to increase bromine handling capacity at an existing West‑unit tower. Day said the company's Central unit currently has only three operating wells for what he referred to as a roughly 40,000‑acre unit and that the company has plugged close to 20 supply wells over the past 40 years.
Committee members asked whether acreage transfers under the bill would affect future mineral designations such as lithium. Day and Stone replied that royalty payments for existing bromine production would continue and that any later establishment of lithium production and associated lithium royalties would be an additional payment to mineral owners; the bill itself would not automatically change mineral designations.
Stone told the committee units can vary in size; during the hearing he said units can be "as little as maybe 1,500 acres up to maybe 20 or 30,000 acres of production." Day described his company's units and the pipeline, right‑of‑way and stakeholder work required to move produced brine to a different tower.
No members of the public spoke for or against the bill on the record. Stone closed by noting no known opposition and moved to pass the bill; Senator Hickey seconded. The committee approved the bill by voice vote.
The bill delegates authority to the Oil and Gas Commission to review and approve any acreage transfers between units; the committee did not set a schedule for further consideration on the record.
