2 views on pooling mineral rights (bill in legis now)

Pro - from the conservative Charleston Daily Mail (WV)

Jim McKinney and Kevin Ellis: Fair pooling will benefit West Virginia

West Virginia has an opportunity to join the majority of other mineral producing states by enacting fair pooling legislation to foster development of its shale gas resources.

By passing such legislation, the State will ensure greater maximization of its natural gas assets – and the benefits they provide to all stakeholders – while minimizing environmental impacts.
-snip-
Pooling is the combination of two or more oil and gas leases and tracts of sub-surface acreage together into a drilling unit to develop oil and natural gas. Proceeds from the sale of production from wells drilled within a designated unit are proportionally paid to all of the oil and gas owners, royalty owners, and leasehold owners with acreage within the unit.

In West Virginia, there are many occasions when voluntary units cannot be formed due to title and other issues, which render some lands unavailable for development. In the Marcellus region of West Virginia, most oil and gas tracts are not large enough alone to drill horizontally. Pooling laws create the framework for stakeholders to realize the benefit of development by allowing for the combination of sufficient tracts to employ horizontal drilling techniques, which is the most effective means to produce shale gas. {emphasis added}

Pooling is not new to West Virginia. State law already allows pooling for deep wells (which are located below the Marcellus formation, like the Utica Shale), shallow secondary oil recovery and coal bed methane wells. The current law does not allow pooling for shallow wells – like those in the Marcellus formation – and does not treat all horizontally drilled wells uniformly.

With respect to pooling in the Marcellus, the current lack of pooling laws for horizontal wells in West Virginia gives an unfair advantage to a minority of royalty owners who may prevent development, thus frustrating the desire of the majority of those owners who have already reached agreements with drilling companies to develop their property.
-snip-
Pooling is not new to West Virginia. State law already allows pooling for deep wells (which are located below the Marcellus formation, like the Utica Shale), shallow secondary oil recovery and coal bed methane wells. The current law does not allow pooling for shallow wells – like those in the Marcellus formation – and does not treat all horizontally drilled wells uniformly.

With respect to pooling in the Marcellus, the current lack of pooling laws for horizontal wells in West Virginia gives an unfair advantage to a minority of royalty owners who may prevent development, thus frustrating the desire of the majority of those owners who have already reached agreements with drilling companies to develop their property.

More:
http://www.charlestondailymail.com/article/20150218/DM04/150219343

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Forced Pooling: When Landowners Can’t Say No to Drilling

Gas drillers are using a powerful legal tool to force reluctant landowners to cooperate.
by Marie C. Baca, Special to ProPublica

As the shale gas boom sweeps across the United States, drillers are turning to a controversial legal tool called forced pooling to gain access to minerals beneath private property--in many cases, without the landowners' permission.

Forced pooling is common in many established oil and gas states, but its use has grown more contentious as concerns rise about drilling safety and homeowners in areas with little drilling history struggle to understand the obscurities of mineral laws.

Joseph Todd, who lives in rural Big Flats, N.Y., wasn't especially concerned when he learned in 2009 that his half-acre property had become part of a drilling unit. But when methane gas showed up in his drinking water well after the drilling began, he became outraged, describing forced pooling as "eminent domain for gas drillers."

"We never wanted to be a part of the drilling," he said. "To have something like this happen is beyond frustrating." Todd and some of his neighbors are now suing the company that is drilling near their neighborhood, even though no link has been proven between drilling and the contamination of their water.

People who see forced pooling as an infringement of property rights also tend to oppose the practice, including Pennsylvania's Republican governor, Tom Corbett, who has otherwise been a staunch supporter of the drilling industry.

"I do not believe in private eminent domain, and forced pooling would be exactly that," Corbett told a group of nearly 400 drilling industry representatives and supporters last month. He also said he won't sign pending legislation that would allow forced pooling for drilling in Pennsylvania's gas-rich Marcellus Shale.

Forced pooling compels holdout landowners to join gas-leasing agreements with their neighbors... -snip-

Thirty-nine states have some form of forced pooling law. West Virginia and Pennsylvania each have measures that don't apply to drilling in the Marcellus Shale, and proponents are trying to expand the laws in those states. (Check out our chart of forced pooling laws across the United States. http://projects.propublica.org/tables/forced-pooling )

... holdout landowners typically have three choices: ... Opting out is not a possibility.

More:
http://www.propublica.org/article/forced-pooling-when-landowners-cant-say-no-to-drilling


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Amazing that pro-fracking Corbett was against it. Guess it shows he was more Tea Party than most realized.

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