HB503 Summary

• Amends Alabama Code Sections 9-17-6 and 9-17-24 to expand the Oil and Gas Board's authority to include regulation of oil sands operations alongside traditional oil and gas activities.

• Adds oil sands surface mining operations to the Board's jurisdiction, including requirements for drilling, casing, plugging, pollution prevention, bonding, well spacing, and equipment identification.

• Establishes fees for surface mining operations to recover oil from oil sands, with acreage-based fees to be set by Board rule, deposited into the State Oil and Gas Board Special Fund.

• Modifies fees for coal group or geologic formation fracturing from a flat fee to tiered structure capped at $750 per well regardless of fracture stages.

• Becomes effective immediately upon Governor approval or upon otherwise becoming law.