Dear Mr. Maurer,
As an unleased mineral owner, it is very unlikely for your lands to be pooled by the operator. If you are leased, then your lessee will have to agree to and be a part of the pooling declaration. This is typically done when a joint operating agreement is in effect between the parties.
As to the size of the pool and its configuration, its size is what is granted under the oil and gas lease and its configuration is, well....let your imagination be your guide.
Remember that the VAST, supermajority of units in Texas are voluntary units. Voluntary units are created by CONTRACT, the contract being either a community lease, an oil or gas lease that grants pooling authority or execution of a separate pooling agreement.
The short answer is that you cannot be voluntarily pooled in Texas without signing something -- a lease allowing pooling, a pooling agreement, or a community lease. Non voluntary pooling primarily comes from a sucessful Mineral Interest Pooling Act action before the Railroad Commission. In the past 45 years or so, there have been about 100 successful MIPA actions. The burden of proof is on you that you are being drained. You will have to show YOUR seismic, YOUR subsurface interpretation and YOUR estimation of the drainage area from the claimed draining well. If you are not a geophysicist, a geologist and a petroleum engineer, then you have to hire those professionals to act as an expert witness on your behalf.
Best way to get pooled is to grant a lease. If Maverick cold drafted you and filed the lease anyway, perhaps that is why you are not currently leased. Perhaps a trip to Halletsville to see if your lease was filed and if filed, is released, is in order. You always get to go to Novosad's right off the square for some good BBQ. By the way, I feel as if the courthouse in Halletsville is one of the very best restored Victorian era courthouses in the State.
