§ 127.001.Definitions

Six definitions, and three of them decide whether a contract is inside or outside the chapter.

An "agreement pertaining to a well for oil, gas, or water or to a mine for a mineral" means a written or oral agreement or understanding concerning the rendering of well or mine services, or an agreement to perform part of those services or an act collateral to them, including furnishing or renting equipment, incidental transportation, or other goods and services — but does not include a joint operating agreement.

"Oral" is worth noticing. An unwritten understanding is within the chapter, so a handshake arrangement is not outside it.

The joint operating agreement exclusion is the chapter’s largest carve-out, and it is defined as an agreement between or among holders of working interests or operating rights for the joint exploration, development, operation, or production of minerals — parties sharing a venture rather than one hiring another.

"Well or mine service" is defined by a long inclusive list covering drilling, deepening, reworking, repairing, testing, treating, perforating, acidizing, logging, conditioning and the handling of produced liquids, plus designing, excavating, constructing or improving a mine shaft, drift or other structure.

Two things are expressly outside it: purchasing, selling, gathering, storing, or transporting gas or natural gas liquids by pipeline or fixed associated facilities, and construction, maintenance, or repair of those pipelines or facilities. Midstream work is not oilfield service for this chapter.

The two indemnity definitions set up the insurance section. A mutual indemnity obligation is one where the parties agree to indemnify each other and each other’s contractors, employees and invitees. A unilateral indemnity obligation is one where the indemnitee does not make a reciprocal indemnity.

"Wild well" means a well from which the escape of oil or gas is not intended and cannot be controlled by equipment used in normal drilling practice — a blowout, in the exclusions section’s terms.