HB 349-HEARING ESTABLISH DRILLING UNITS/SPACING  1:50:00 PM CHAIR PATKOTAK announced that the final order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 349, "An Act relating to the establishment of oil and gas drilling units and patterns." [Before the committee was CSHB 349(CRA).] 1:50:35 PM REPRESENTATIVE RAUSCHER, prime sponsor of HB 349, recounted that the bill proposes to change the antiquated process for well spacing to a more efficient process for [today's] active drilling. 1:51:14 PM REPRESENTATIVE HANNAN moved to adopt Amendment 1 to CSHB 349(CRA), labeled 32-LS1542\B.1, Nauman, 4/28/22, which read: Page 1, line 1, following "units": Insert ", spacing," Page 2, line 12: Delete "in a pool without a drilling unit or units established under this section" 1:51:17 PM CHAIR PATKOTAK objected for discussion purposes. REPRESENTATIVE HANNAN explained that Amendment 1 would delete the final clause in the sentence on page 2, line 12. She recounted that the House Community and Regional Affairs Standing Committee amended the bill to include an explicit protection of correlative rights and suggested draft language from both the AOGCC and Legislative Legal Services. However, she noted, [CSHB 394(CRA) appears to read that correlative rights cannot be protected unless there is a defined pool already established. If that final clause is deleted, she stated, the language would say, "The commission may adopt well spacing regulation to protect correlative rights." She explained that correlative rights are when there are different lease holders adjoining a section line and once a pool has been defined it becomes clear. She said the amendment makes it cleaner and makes the intent clear that correlative rights should always be protected regardless of whether the pool is defined. 1:52:44 PM CHAIR PATKOTAK removed his objection to Amendment 1. 1:52:52 PM REPRESENTATIVE RAUSCHER objected. He offered his appreciation for Amendment 1 and said he considers it a helpful friendly amendment. REPRESENTATIVE RAUSCHER removed his objection to Amendment 1. There being no further objection, Amendment 1 was adopted. CHAIR PATKOTAK noted that Representative Fields had questions during the bill's first hearing. He said he presumes the department followed up with specifics and that Representative Fields' questions were answered. 1:53:44 PM REPRESENTATIVE RAUSCHER stated that this legislation is needed, and the industry looks forward to its passage because it will improve the turnaround time for permitting. 1:54:11 PM REPRESENTATIVE HOPKINS moved to report CSHB 349(CRA), as amended, with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal notes. There being no objection, CSHB 349(RES) was reported out of the House Resources Standing Committee. CHAIR PATKOTAK stated that Legislative Legal Services is able make any needed conforming or technical changes to the bill.