SB576 SFAT Ferns 3-28

Heath 7879

Senator Ferns moved to amend the bill by striking out the title and substituting therefor a new title, to read as follows:

Eng. Com. Sub. for Senate Bill 576--A Bill to amend and reenact §37-7-2 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended; and to amend said code by adding thereto a new chapter, designated §37B-1-1, §37B-1-2, §37B-1-3, §37B-1-4, §37B-1-5, §37B-1-6, §37B-1-7, §37B-1-8, §37B-1-9 and §37B-1-10, all relating generally to real property; providing an exception to waste for certain oil and gas development; providing a short title; providing declarations of public policy and legislative findings; providing definitions; providing that consent for the lawful use of the oil and gas mineral property by three fourths of the royalty interests in oil and gas mineral property is permissible, not waste and not trespass; allowing nonconsenting cotenants to elect production royalty interest or a working interest share of production; providing for the joint development of multiple contiguous oil and gas leases by horizontal drilling unless development is expressly prohibited by agreement; limiting jointly developed leases to six hundred forty acres with a  ten percent tolerance; requiring any operator that elects to develop leases jointly to pay owners of the surface, on a pro rata share, one well pad fee of $100,000, as indexed to the consumer price index, for each tract of land upon which any portion of the well pad sits; allowing for a net acreage fractional share royalty interest, free of post-production expenses, for multiple contiguous leases jointly developed; providing for timely payment of royalties and requiring specified information to be remitted with such payments; requiring quarterly reporting of production data to Department of Environmental Protection for horizontal wells drilled pursuant to the provisions herein; providing that cotenants are not liable for damages as a result of the lawful use of oil and gas mineral property; requiring surface use agreements in specified circumstances and preserving common law rights; and providing for severability of provisions.

Adopted

Rejected