My family has signed a lease agreement with Brigham Oil & Gas recently for property in Williams Co. North Dakota Sect 6&7 T154N R100W. The NDIC website shows case #17149 Application of Brigham Oil & Gas for an order pursuant to NDAC 43-02-03-88 pooling sect 6&7 T 154 N R100W. Case #17155 is a application by Brigham Oil & Gas on each 1280 acre spacing unit within the zones II & III of the Williston Bakken Pool Williams Co for up to eight wells on each unit. So far so good.
Recently Triangle USA Petroleum Corp. applied for an order pursuant to NDAC 43-02-03-88.1 pooling all interests in a spacing unit described as Sect 1 & 2 T154N R101W AND sect 6&7 T 154 N R100 W Williams Co. authorizing 14 wells on 2560 acres.
My question is what limits if any are there to the size of these spacing units? I haven't heard of larger than 1280 acres. It would seem that large tracts comprising many thousands of acres could be "pooled" in one spacing unit and then held by production after the drilling of one well in the unit if there are no limits. I'm just trying to understand what is going on here with Triangle's application and what it means (if anything) to lease holders in those spacing unit(s)?
Any clarification would be much appreciated.