An oil company has held some of my minerals in a pool for the last 17 years with a vertical gas well. Can they get a permit from the RRC and drill a horizontal section without renegotiating the leases? My surface is not the drill site. Just wondering.
6th Generation:
Read your original lease. The wording would be the key and answer to your question. Did the lease contain a "pugh clause"?
As mentioned, many options but all of them depend on your original lease. If no pugh clause it is plausible that they can drill at any time, so long as within the original terms of what is HBP, in accordance with RRC rules. Sure it goes much deeper than that but that is the basics and a very minimal level. It all depends on your lease though. More production is what you want as a mineral owner so I wouldn’t be too upset someone is drilling another well, if it was in accordance with the original lease provisions…
Also look at your pooling agreement, if you signed a separate pooling agreement.
Thanks for everyone's input. The lease was signed by relatives back when and I inherited the land. There was a vertical and horizontal pugh clause and all land outside the pooled unit was released. I will have to find the lease and look, but I think the operator has the right to pool as they see fit.