Another Look at WV’s Co-tenancy & Joint Development Proposals
When MDN editor Jim Willis attended the Shale Insight conference in Pittsburgh two weeks ago, one of the recurring themes he heard from West Virginia officials is that the state urgently needs to pass “mineral efficiency” laws. What they meant by mineral efficiency is another name for co-tenancy and joint development. We’ve written a fair bit about the topic–what we call “forced pooling lite.” In August the West Virginia Oil & Natural Gas Association (WVONGA) announced its intention to push, once again, for co-tenancy and joint development (see WVONGA Makes Plans to Push Forced Pooling Lite in 2018). We spotted an editorial from the co-founder of the West Virginia Surface Owners Rights Organization on the topic co-tenancy and joint development. He has a unique perspective. He calls co-tenancy “majority rules” and joint development “invisible ink.” What does he mean? And what would these two measures do if adopted? And is there really an urgent need for them? Let’s tackle this issue once again…
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A West Virginia Circuit Court case decided last week (by jury) found in favor of surface owners against a well pad constructed by EQT. The decision has far-reaching implications for not only surface owners and drillers, but mineral rights owners too. From the first time we read about so-called “joint development” legislation being promoted by the drilling industry in WV (back in February), we’ve not been fans (see 
The West Virginia Legislature has appointed a new Joint Committee on Natural Gas Development, composed of Senators and Delegates, to put their collective heads together to see how they can encourage more oil and gas development in the Mountain State. The committee will meet tomorrow for the first time. The effort is being supported by the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association (WVONGA). In general, it certainly seems like a good idea–WV needs more drilling. However, WVONGA plans to use the committee as a platform to push its “modernized mineral efficiency laws”–i.e. forced pooling lite. As we reported last week, WVONGA is making an all-out push for new forced pooling laws in 2018 (see 
The West Virginia Oil & Natural Gas Association (WVONGA) plans to push, once again, for what MDN calls forced pooling lite in the next session of the legislature scheduled for early 2018. Forced pooling legislation in West Virginia has been put forward five times in the past seven years–and each time it has failed to win enough votes in the WV legislature. This year, WVONGA changed tactics and renamed forced pooling as co-tenancy and joint development (see 
Ohio is about to pass and adopt it’s latest biennial budget. Part of the budget bill includes language to exempt Ohio’s city and town parks from the state’s unitization (i.e. forced pooling) laws. In Ohio, if 65% of the landowners in a proposed unit have agreed to lease their land for oil or gas drilling, the other landowners in the unit can be forced to join the unit to allow drilling under (not on) their land. There are all sorts of requirements before forced pooling occurs, including a $10,000 fee paid by the driller, and a hearing to review efforts made to enroll said recalcitrant landowners. But in the end, it is possible to force landowners who don’t want drilling, to have it. The justification is that those who don’t want it are harming those who do want it by not agreeing to join the unit. Should the action of someone with a few acres deny benefits to all of his neighbors? We’re not saying we support the concept of forced pooling–just giving you our best interpretation of the arguments used to support it. We understand those arguments. We also understand the sanctity of private property. Until now, local towns and municipalities in Ohio were treated like any other landowner. But now, with the new budget, they will get a special exemption. Local municipalities cannot be forced to participate–unless they want to participate–in a drilling unit…
Last week the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) issued updated guidelines for “statutory unitization applications” (full copy below). That is, when a driller wants to form a unit for drilling by combining adjacent properties, the driller must first request permission from the ODNR to form a unit. In Ohio, a unit can be formed when the driller has 65% of the acreage in the unit under a lease agreement. In other words, these are the revised/new guidelines (i.e. hoops) drillers must jump through before the ODNR will agree to combine either willing, or unwilling (force pooled) landowners into a unit for drilling… 
In early April MDN reported that West Virginia’s effort to pass a law dealing with co-tenancy and joint development–what we called forced pooling lite–had gone up in pot smoke (see 
We find this news somewhat surprising. The West Virginia Oil & Natural Gas Association (WVONGA) has been pushing hard to get legislation passed in WV’s short legislative session on an issue we call “forced pooling lite”–WV Senate Bill 576 which addresses the issues of co-tenancy and joint development (see 
Earlier this week MDN reported that West Virginia Senate Bill (SB) 576, which addresses the issues of co-tenancy and joint development, was a freight train on a fast track to approval (see 
The West Virginia Oil & Natural Gas Association (WVONGA) is pushing hard to get legislation passed that we call “forced pooling lite”–WV Senate Bill 576 which addresses the issues of co-tenancy and joint development (see 
The West Virginia Oil & Natural Gas Association (WVONGA) has just raised the stakes significantly in a bid to pass new “forced pooling lite” legislation. In the past six years, the oil and gas industry in WV has pushed for a forced pooling law five times. It’s failed every time. So this year the industry, represented by WVONGA, said it would not push forced pooling but instead would try to get a bill passed to address two of the issues that were previously part of a larger forced pooling bill–something called co-tenancy and joint development (see 
Yesterday MDN reported on a new West Virginia bill (Senate Bill 576) that aims to bring both the drilling industry and rights owners together to support co-tenancy and joint development–which are stripped down pieces of previous forced pooling bills that failed in the past (see 
As MDN previously reported, perhaps the biggest energy-related issue for this year’s session of the West Virginia 60-day legislative session will not be a bill on forced pooling. Instead, the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association (WVONGA) is pushing a legislation on co-tenancy and joint development (see 
On Friday MDN ran a story of keen interest to both mineral rights owners and drillers in West Virginia–about an effort pushing new legislation this year in lieu of forced pooling, something called “co-tenancy” and “joint development” (see 
Forced pooling legislation in West Virginia has been put forward five times in the past seven years–and each time it has failed to win enough votes in the WV legislature. In its most recent incarnation (last year), forced pooling would allow drillers to form a “unit” for drilling (typically one square mile, or 640 acres) from a group of properties where at least 80% of the mineral rights owners have signed a lease (see 