Texas

Oil and gas spills and H-8 loss reports

Agency Railroad Commission of Texas

The Railroad Commission of Texas's field guides for crude oil and condensate spills count notice to the Commission under its Statewide Rule 20 among the parts of a spill response. The Commission's Form H-8 is its Crude Oil, Gas Well Liquids, or Associated Products Loss Report, and it posts the H-8 loss reports as one spreadsheet per year, from 2009 to 2026. The same guides set out how a crude oil spill outside a sensitive area, or a condensate spill, is to be delineated and cleaned up.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 does not name state spill lists among its standard record sources. The federal counterpart of a state spill list is the emergency response record described on the ERNS page. The general reading of a spill listing is on Spill report at or near the subject property. TCEQ's spill records, and the other agencies that may have jurisdiction over a spill, are on the Spill reports page. A spill at a well site or other oil and gas facility is a reason to check the Railroad Commission's records as well.

Notice first, then a letter. The Commission's condensate field guide sums up Rule 20 this way: word to the Commission at once after a spill, leak, break or fire, then a letter that describes what happened and how much product was lost. The Commission's forms list ties Form H-8, and an H-8 interim report, to Rule 20 (16 Texas Administrative Code section 3.20).
Crude oil has a number to meet. For crude oil spilled outside a sensitive area, the Commission's crude oil field guide expects free liquid to be taken up at once and the soil holding more than 1 percent total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) by weight to be traced sideways and down. For spills of more than 5 and fewer than 25 barrels, the tracing may be done with field kits that test for TPH, whose results go in with the H-8; for spills over 25 barrels, depth samples need a laboratory. The guide wants the soil brought below 1.0 percent TPH by weight as soon as that can technically be done and no more than a year after the spill, with closure resting on one or more TPH results from a laboratory. For a crude oil spill on or near the property, ask for the TPH results and the closure analysis.
Condensate and sensitive areas are judged case by case. The condensate guide says Statewide Rule 91 sets plain goals only for crude oil outside sensitive areas, and leaves spilled condensate, and crude oil spilled in a sensitive area, to be decided case by case. The criteria it recommends field staff use for condensate call for immediate reporting of any spill over five barrels and any spill into water, cleanup of every condensate spill whatever its size, and soil testing for TPH and BTEX against soil-to-groundwater limits that depend on how the shallowest groundwater is classed. The documentation it asks for includes a topographic map locating the release and any domestic or irrigation supply well within half a mile of its delineated edge.
The yearly files are not described. The H-8 page does not say what each spreadsheet holds, and this page carries nothing from them. For the sampling and maps, ask the Commission for the incident's file.

Where to look a site up

The H-8 Loss Reports page links the yearly spreadsheets. For questions it gives Field Operations, 512-463-6830 and OGFOPS@rrc.texas.gov.
Both field guides are linked from the Commission's Guidance Documents and Helpful Links page.

Getting the file

The Commission takes written requests under the Public Information Act by email to open.records@rrc.texas.gov, by fax to 512-463-6684, by mail to PO Box 12967, Austin, Texas 78711-2967, or in person, as its Procedures for Requesting Information page sets out. For an incident, that page asks the requester to say what kind of incident it was and when and where it happened. It says the records team aims to answer every request within 10 business days.

Sources

Railroad Commission of Texas pages, read October 15, 2026, no modified date shown: