Texas Rule 32: what may be flared or vented, and when an operator needs an exception

The rule reaches gas from “any oil well, gas well, gas gathering system, gas plant or other gas handling equipment”. It “does not apply to gas transmission or gas distribution facilities or operations” (§ 3.32(c)). Subsection (b) adds that activities the rule authorizes “may be subject to rules and regulations promulgated by” the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the federal Clean Air Act or the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality under the Texas Clean Air Act. This page stays on the Railroad Commission rule and does not cover those.

Subsection (a) defines five terms: fugitive emissions, gathering system, lease production facilities, low pressure separator gas and tank vapors. It does not define “flare” or “vent”. It does not define “casinghead gas” or “gas well gas” either, although both are in the rule’s title and “casinghead gas” appears in § 3.32(f)(2)(D). The statutory definition of casinghead gas is in Natural Resources Code § 86.002(10), which the statutes guide sets out.

In a July 2025 presentation, Commission staff put it in plain words: flaring is the “controlled burning of natural gas” and venting is the “release of natural gas to the atmosphere”. The same slides list the rule’s purposes as preventing waste, fostering conservation, protecting correlative rights and promoting the orderly development of the field. Those are staff descriptions, not rule text.

Commission staff sort releases into three types in their July 2025 slides: exempt, authorized, and authorized by securing an exception. The table below follows the rule text.

What counts as necessity on a lease

Section 3.32(f)(2) says the Commission or its delegate “may administratively grant or renew an exception”. It does not say the Commission must. Necessity for the release “includes, but is not limited to,” five situations:

1. Cleaning a well of solids or fluids or both for more than ten producing days after initial completion, recompletion in another field or workover operations in the same field.
2. Unloading excess formation fluid buildup in a wellbore for periods in excess of 24 hours in one continuous event or 72 hours total in one calendar month.
3. Volumes of low pressure gas that can be measured with devices routinely used in oil and gas operations and that are not directed to a gas gathering system, gas pipeline, marketing facility or other authorized use “due to mechanical, physical, or economic impracticability”.
4. “For casinghead gas only, the unavailability of a gas pipeline or other marketing facility, or other purposes and uses authorized by law”.
5. Avoiding curtailment of gas production which will result in a reduction of ultimate recovery from a gas well or oil reservoir.

Item (D) applies to casinghead gas only, and it names the unavailability of a gas pipeline or other marketing facility. The Commission’s flaring FAQ adds that exceptions to flare from gas wells “are not typically issued as natural gas is the main product of a gas well.”

Gathering systems and plants have their own limit. The operator of a gas gathering system, gas plant, gas compressor facility or other gas handling equipment not directly associated with lease production “shall not intentionally allow gas to be released for a period of more than 24 hours after the start of an upset condition” (§ 3.32(g)(1)). An exception can be requested for longer, and the rule’s examples are construction, repairs or maintenance, a gas plant turnaround and emergency situations (§ 3.32(g)(2)).

Subsection (e) says which way an authorized release goes. The default for a release longer than 24 hours, unless subsection (d), (f)(1)(B) or (C), (g)(2) or an exception under (h) says otherwise, is that it “shall be burned in a flare if the gas can be burned safely.” A release of 24 hours’ duration or less “may be vented to the air if flaring is not required for safety reasons or by other regulation and the gas can be safely vented” (§ 3.32(e)(1)).

• An exception to vent a release longer than 24 hours can be granted “if the operator presents information that shows the gas cannot be both safely and continuously burned in a flare, and the gas can be safely vented” (§ 3.32(e)(3)).
• Even with an exception, “the commission or the commission’s delegate may require that the gas be flared if flaring is required for safety reasons” (§ 3.32(e)(4)).
• Releases must also be managed under § 3.36, the hydrogen sulfide rule (its current title is “Oil, Gas, Brine, or Geothermal Resource Operation in Hydrogen Sulfide Areas”), “when applicable” (§ 3.32(e)(2)).

Subsection (h) says the Commission “or the commission’s delegate may administratively grant an exception authorized by this section provided that the requirements of this subsection are met.” Those requirements:

• Fee. The request comes with the fee required by § 3.78(b)(5) (§ 3.32(h)(1)). The amount is on the Form R-32 instructions.
• Length. An administrative exception “shall not exceed a period of 180 days” (§ 3.32(h)(2)). The 180-day limit “shall not apply for volumes of gas less than or equal to 50 mcf of hydrocarbon gas per day for each gas well, commission-designated oil lease, or commingled vent or flare point” (§ 3.32(h)(3)). “Requests for exceptions for more than 180 days and for volumes greater than 50 mcf of hydrocarbon gas per day shall be granted only in a final order signed by the commission” (§ 3.32(h)(4)).
• Emergencies. A request to cover “an operating emergency, system upset, or other unplanned condition” may be sent by facsimile or other means, if the signed original and fee are received by the Commission within three working days of the facsimile (§ 3.32(h)(5)).
• Who holds it. Exceptions are issued to the operator of a gas well or commission-designated oil lease or commingling point, and to the operator of a processing plant or other facility subject to the section (§ 3.32(h)(6)). They “are not transferable upon a change of operatorship.” The new operator has 90 days from the date the Commission approves the transfer to review existing exceptions and apply for a new one, and the existing exception “shall remain in effect during the 90-day review period” (§ 3.32(h)(7)).
• One application, many releases. One application, with one fee, can cover multiple releases from a full or partial shutdown of a gas gathering system, gas plant, gas compressor or other gas handling facility under (f)(1)(C) or (g)(1) (§ 3.32(h)(8)).

Renewals, changes and hearings

• The Commission or its delegate “may renew an exception,” and an administrative renewal by the delegate “may not exceed a period of 180 days” (§ 3.32(i)(1)).
• A renewal rests on a showing by the operator “that the conditions for which the initial exception or latest renewal was granted have not significantly changed despite a good-faith attempt by the operator to direct the gas to or utilize the gas for purposes and uses authorized by law” (§ 3.32(i)(2)).
• The renewal application and fee go in “21 days prior to expiration of the existing exception authority” (§ 3.32(i)(3)). If the operator files at least 21 days before expiration and the authority runs out before the Commission acts, the operator “is authorized to continue to operate under the existing authority pending final commission action” (§ 3.32(i)(4)).
• A request to amend an exception needs a new application “if the amendment will result in a material change of the previously granted exception.” Material changes include a change of operator and “an increase in volume of gas to be released or an extension of the duration of an exception greater than that provided for in subsection (h)” (§ 3.32(i)(5) and (6)).
• An operator “may request a hearing on any application for an exception or exception renewal,” and on a request for administrative approval that has been denied (§ 3.32(j)(1) and (2)).

Form R-32

The application is Form R-32, Application for Exception to Statewide Rule 32. The copy linked from the Commission’s forms page carries the effective date 11/04/2020. The Commission approved the revised form on November 4, 2020; it had been titled the Statewide Rule 32 Exception Data Sheet. Under the form instructions, the operator files with the Engineering Unit by hand delivery, by mail or by email, and a fee is required with each application, whether for a new exception, a renewal or a hearing request. The Commission’s May 2021 notice encourages filing through the RRC Online System and says hard copy filings continue to be accepted. The Commission also published an online filing guide for the form (version 1.1, September 2021).

The form asks for:

• the operator’s P-5 number, a 24-hour emergency contact number and a site name;
• whether it is a new exception or a renewal, and whether a hearing is requested;
• the producing property, by drilling permit number, gas ID number, oil lease number, surface commingle permit number or gas plant serial number, or “multiple properties” for a shutdown under § 3.32(h)(8);
• the number of flares and vents, and whether the property is connected to a gas gathering or transmission system and, if not, the distance to the nearest pipeline;
• the requested release rate in MCF a day and the requested duration, with an effective date and an expiration date or “permanent”;
• the method of gas measurement: orifice meter, turbine meter, mass flow meter, another meter or an estimate;
• for each flare or vent, its name, whether it is a flare or a vent, the release height and the location by district, county, latitude and longitude;
• whether the site is subject to Statewide Rule 36 (hydrogen sulfide) and, if so, the nearest public area within one mile;
• the necessity for the release, checked from the five § 3.32(f)(2) situations or from an “Other” list (insufficient gas gathering capacity, a system upset, scheduled or unscheduled maintenance); and
• the operator’s certification under Natural Resources Code § 91.143.

For a new exception, the instructions tell the operator to “Include an explanation of why the operations cannot be shut-in and the gas must be released” and to “Explain how all non-wasteful uses, including sales of gas and other beneficial uses, have been investigated and exhausted.” For the requested release rate they call for preliminary production data for the past 60 days, or the production history to date for a well that has produced for less than 60 days; the data is not required for gas plant exceptions. For the unavailable-pipeline necessity they call for “documentation of gathering/transmission pipeline availability, capacity and/or reliability limitations,” and plans to secure pipeline or plant capacity with “evidence of good faith efforts to obtain the same”.

For that same necessity, casinghead gas where a pipeline is unavailable, the form lists four requested forms of exception. They are on the form, not in the rule:

• administrative approval for 90 days, not to be renewed administratively;
• administrative approval for up to 180 days, in which flaring or venting is limited to 5 days per month;
• administrative approval up to 180 days if the gas volume flared is reduced by a flare reduction technology (the instructions ask for the type of release reduction technology and the anticipated percentage reduction, and, if it has not been implemented, the anticipated date of implementation); and
• a step-out (drilling in undeveloped areas), where the basis is a lack of infrastructure for the quality of gas or a 2-1/2 mile radius review for pipeline availability, with 90-day renewable administrative extensions for a maximum of 180 days.

The monthly production report

Flared and vented gas is also reported on Form PR, the monthly production report. Its instructions (the copy linked from the Commission’s forms page is dated 01/25/2022) say to “report all gas produced regardless of disposition,” including “test production and vented or flared gas”. In the casinghead gas and gas well gas disposition table, code 10 is “Flared,” code 11 is “Vented” and code 1 is “Lease or field fuel use”. For gas reported under code 10 or 11 the operator enters in REMARKS the authority for the release, with one or more of four two-letter codes: AR, authorized by rule; AE, authorized by exception; EP, exception pending; and EX, exempt. The Commission’s staff slides list the same four with the same labels. Lining them up with the layers in section 2 (EX with exempt releases, AR with releases authorized by rule, AE and EP with exceptions granted and pending) is this page’s reading; the instructions give the codes and their labels only. Section 3.32(d)(1) says exempt releases are not required by the Commission to be reported, and the instructions list EX as a code all the same.

The Commission said the new disposition codes 10 and 11 let it “quantify the legal disposition of gas that was flared and vented.” Its flaring FAQ says the Form PR must include actual, metered volumes reported at the lease level.

Where the public can look

The Commission’s Flare/Vent Exceptions (Statewide Rule 32) Query searches Form R-32 applications submitted on or after May 2, 2021, and for an approved exception it provides a PDF of the authorized exception information.

Two of the terms in the table are in the rule text: the ceiling of 180 days on an administrative exception (§ 3.32(h)(2)) and the filing deadline after a shutdown release (§ 3.32(f)(1)(C) and (g)(2)). The 7 and 14-calendar-day terms, the 45, 60 and 90-day exception terms, the 5-days-a-month limit, the step-out and a “permanent” exception appear only in Commission documents from different years or in the form, not in § 3.32.

The rule text did not change in those years. The source note on § 3.32 lists adoption effective December 4, 1996 (21 TexReg 11367) and amendments effective July 10, 2000 (25 TexReg 6487) and September 1, 2004 (29 TexReg 8271), and then an amendment published in the February 14, 2025 issue of the Texas Register (50 TexReg 835). The Commission’s adoption document for that 2025 amendment (a January 29, 2025 staff memo with the adoption preamble and rule text) marks every subsection of § 3.32 “(No change.)” except § 3.32(e)(2), which now names Rule 36 as “Oil, Gas, Brine, or Geothermal Resource Operation in Hydrogen Sulfide Areas”. The preamble says the amendments to §§ 3.1, 3.5, 3.7, 3.12, 3.13, 3.16, 3.17, 3.32, 3.36 and 3.73 “add references to brine resources and spent brine return injection wells as applicable or otherwise clarify requirements of those sections related to brine production and injection.”

What did change was the paperwork. The Commission’s November 9, 2020 news release says the commissioners’ action “made changes to the application for flaring exceptions, not to the state’s flaring rule (Statewide Rule 32).”

The rule and its form speak to putting gas to use in a few places. The rule’s general provisions require gas to be “utilized for purposes and uses authorized by law”. A renewal rests on a “good-faith attempt by the operator to direct the gas to or utilize the gas for purposes and uses authorized by law.” The Form R-32 instructions ask how “all non-wasteful uses, including sales of gas and other beneficial uses, have been investigated and exhausted.”

The rule text does not mention engines, generators, electric power or computing, and it does not say how an exception’s volume changes if part of the gas goes to a use. The statutes that list what gas may be used for are set out in the statutes guide.

Exceptions are issued to the operator of the well, lease, commingling point or plant (§ 3.32(h)(6)), and Form R-32 is signed under the operator’s certification. The home page form takes the facts that bear on a use of the gas: the rate, the gas analysis if there is one, the county and who owns the surface.