A storer must get a commission order finding several conditions before filing an eminent-domain petition for a storage facility.
Sec. 91.174. FINDINGS OF COMMISSION. (a) Any storer desiring to exercise the right of eminent domain for the acquisition of a storage facility shall, as a condition precedent to the filing of its petition in the appropriate court, obtain from the commission an order finding: (1) that the underground formation or stratum sought to be acquired is classified by the commission as a gas reservoir and is suitable for the underground storage of natural gas and that the storage of natural gas is necessary for the gas utility to provide adequate service to the public and is in the public interest; (2) that the use of the formation or stratum as a storage facility will cause no injury to surface or underground water resources; (3) that the formation or stratum does not contain native gas producible in paying quantities unless the recoverable volumes of native gas originally in place are substantially depleted and unless the formation or stratum has a greater value of ultimate use to the consuming public as a storage facility to ensure an adequate supply of natural gas or for the conservation of natural gas than the production of native gas which remains; (4) the extent of the horizontal limits of the reservoir expected to be penetrated by displaced or injected gas; and (5) that no portion of the formation or stratum sought to be acquired has been condemned or is being utilized for the injection, storage, and withdrawal of gas by others. (b) The designation of a storage facility does not prevent any storer from instituting additional proceedings in the event it is later determined that the underground reservoir should be extended to prevent the escape, displacement, or withdrawal by others of injected gas. Added by Acts 1979, 66th Leg., p. 1996, ch. 785, Sec. 3, eff. June 13, 1979.