What should a Big Spring oilfield contractor check in its insurance and MSAs?

Howard County is in RRC District 08, handled from the Midland office. TSHA places it about 80 miles west of Abilene on the eastern edge of the Permian Basin, with Big Spring as county seat and largest town.

The district line runs close by. Borden County, which TSHA places directly north of Howard County, is in District 8A, handled from the Lubbock office. Glasscock, Martin and Mitchell counties are District 08.

Why a contractor cares:

• Inspections, permits and filings for Borden County wells go through a different district office than your Howard County work.
• Your insurance does not care about RRC districts, but it does care about where you work. Make sure your policies list every county or state you go to and that your auto radius reflects the drives.

TSHA records oil in the Howard-Glasscock field in 1925, and the Otis Chalk No. 1 well came in on April 18, 1926, starting a boom. By 1936, 810 wells were producing in the oilfields around Big Spring.

The UT Bureau of Economic Geology lists Howard and Glasscock among the 18 Spraberry Trend counties, where operators expanded Spraberry completions down into the Wolfcamp and deeper zones.

So a Big Spring crew can spend Monday on a lease with nearly a century of history and Tuesday on a new horizontal completion. The insurance questions follow the work:

• On older leases: lease maintenance, flowline repair and workovers, where care, custody or control and pollution matter most.
• On new completions: downhole tools, high-pressure equipment and who takes underground resources.

See roustabout company insurance and well servicing insurance.

The RRC set up the Stanton Seismic Response Area in January 2022. The RRC places it about 11 miles north of Stanton and about 25 miles northeast of Midland.

Stanton works differently from Gardendale. Instead of suspending deep disposal permits, the RRC accepted an operator-led plan to reduce injection volumes and stop injection at some wells. A November 2023 revision lowered the deep disposal target by 55,000 barrels a day, and a May 2024 revision added a further cut of 29,000 barrels a day.

When disposal capacity tightens nearby, produced water travels farther. For Big Spring water haulers:

• longer runs put more miles on the auto policy,
• an RRC waste hauler permit is required to haul produced water for hire off the lease, and
• a spill at an unfamiliar disposal site still needs to land somewhere in your coverage.

See water hauling insurance and do I need pollution coverage to haul produced water.

TSHA describes Big Spring as a petrochemical center as well as an oil town. Some Big Spring contractors work both sides: lease and well work for operators, and maintenance or fabrication for plants and pipelines.

The Texas Oilfield Anti-Indemnity Act (Chapter 127) is written for agreements pertaining to a well. Its definition of well services includes drilling, reworking, repairing, testing, treating and transporting oil, produced water and other liquids in connection with a well. It specifically does not include construction, maintenance or repair of oil, gas or NGL pipelines or fixed associated facilities.

So the same company can sign two contracts with very different indemnity rules. What to do:

• Keep a copy of each contract's insurance exhibit, and do not assume your oilfield MSA wording carries over.
• Check that your GL additional insured endorsements are broad enough for both, or schedule the plant contract separately.
• Ask how your umbrella follows the contractual liability in each.

The attorney reads the indemnity. We match the insurance to it. See what is contractual liability coverage and indemnity vs additional insured.

TSHA describes Big Spring as the place where Interstate 20, US 80, US 87, State Highway 350 and Farm Road 700 meet. That makes it a natural yard location, and it puts your trucks on interstate and US highway traffic as well as lease roads.

• Oversize or overweight loads need a TxDMV permit, and TxDMV issues an annual permit for oil well servicing units that requires a USDOT number in your company's name.
• County load limits can apply on county roads and bridges under Transportation Code 621.301.
• Long highway miles are what auto underwriters price. Driver lists, MVRs and any telematics you run belong in the submission.

See oilfield auto insurance and MCS-90 and does my auto policy cover lease roads.