Washington County Texas,
If the oil company is spacing laterals within the same unit 900 ft apart from each other then one can assume that they do not expect drainage within 450 ft of the lateral ?
So, if my property has a lateral within 300 ft of the leased line and I am with the same company on the other side of the lease shouldn’t I be pulled into that unit ?
I mean they are spacing their wells 900 ft away from each other
Austin chalk formation
Platt was approved by the Texas railroad commission but that’s because none of the landowners have complained
Do I have a complaint ?
Do I have a concern ?
Bad faith pooling, radial drainage, ?
The fact wells are being drilled a certain distance apart doesn’t mean RRC won’t allow them to be drilled on narrower spacing. Whether a well location might drain your acreage would probably require having a reservoir study made and would still be an educated guess.
RRC’s approval process is based on the field rules approved for the area where a well is permitted. The Giddings Field, that covers most of Washington and adjoining counties, has several specific “fields” that apply to different parts of the Austin Chalk formation.
RRC’s site has a Field Rule Index where you can look them up. I think the minimum distance from lease lines in those rules is generally set at 330’ feet. But if an operator wants to drill closer they can apply for a variance (Rule 37 Exception). If there are other leaseholders/operators, or unleased mineral owners, within those exception boundaries, they have to be notified and given the opportunity to protest the variance being granted. In a lot of cases the same operator applying for the variance also controls the adjoining acreage so there is no objection and the exception is granted, and in other cases an offsetting operator will sign a waiver in return for the operator wanting the variance agreeing to help them in a similar situation.
As long as a proposed well fits the field rules RRC won’t get involved in questions about how the boundaries of a pooled unit were set or whether it should have included additional acreage. In the case of allocation wells, which is how many Washington County wells are now being drilled, RRC won’t take a position on whether the location of the laterals are legal. The permits they approve include a statement that the decision is outside RRC’s authority and will be left for the courts to decide.
On the RRC website - online research queries, look at the field rules for your well. The completion report will state the field, such as Giddings (Austin Chalk-1) and whether it is classified as an oil well or a gas well. You only need to input part of the field and then a drop-down list will let you select the field. There will be oil field rules and gas well rules. For Giddings (Austin Chalk-1), the lease spacing is 467 feet. So as long as the lateral for a neighboring well is 467+ feet from the lease line, it is within RRC rules. Lease spacing rules vary, for example Phantom (Wolfcamp) is 330 feet spacing. The well spacing is for wells within the same unit. At the bottom of the page, there are docket numbers and you can open the final orders.