West Virginia House Bill 3094 (Prior Session Legislation)

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Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: Introduced on March 14 2017 - 25% progression, died in committee
Action: 2017-03-14 - To House Energy
Pending: House Energy Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Introduced) [HTML]

The purpose of this bill is to provide an exception to waste for certain oil and gas development, and to encourage the efficient and economic development of oil and gas resources by providing that a lawful use of mineral property that has been consented to by three‑fourths of the mineral interest owners is permissible, is not waste, and is not a trespass. The bill provides that cotenants are not liable for damages for the use of their mineral property when an accounting is provided and the prorata share of revenues and costs are distributed to each consenting cotenant or reserved for unknown or unlocatable tenants. The bill also provides for an acreage weighted average royalty interest, free of post‑production expenses, to each nonconsenting cotenant. The bill prevents waste by authorizing the development by horizontal drilling of multiple adjacent leases held by the same operator provided that the operator has a surface use agreement with all surface owners whose tracts may be disturbed by joint development. The bill also addresses the manner by which royalties are distributed to owners affected by joint development, and provides that the royalties may not be reduced by post‑production expenses. Finally, the bill provides its provisions are severable. Strike‑throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.

Cotenancy and Lease Integration Act

Del. William Anderson [R]

Date	Chamber	Action
2017-03-14	House	To House Energy
2017-03-14	House	Introduced in House
2017-03-14	House	To Energy then Judiciary
2017-03-14	House	Filed for introduction

SB576 (Similar To) 2017-03-31 - To House Energy

Chapter	Article	Section	Citation Type	Statute Text
37	7	2	Amended Code	Citation Text
37B	1	1	New Code	See Bill Text
37B	1	2	New Code	See Bill Text
37B	1	3	New Code	See Bill Text
37B	1	4	New Code	See Bill Text
37B	1	5	New Code	See Bill Text
37B	1	6	New Code	See Bill Text
37B	1	7	New Code	See Bill Text

Type	Source
Summary	http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Status/Bills_history.cfm?input=3094&year=2017&sessiontype=RS&btype=bill
Text	http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=hb3094%20intr.htm&yr=2017&sesstype=RS&i=3094