I got a letter (on Nov. 3rd, 2015) notifying me that Cimarex Energy Co. plans to communitize all of Section 33-15N-10W. I was wondering if anyone has heard anything about this and can expound on what this entails.
Does it have a case docket number at the top of it? Communitize often means the same thing as pooling. They may be creating a unit due to the successful well. If you want to friend me using the blue icon at the left, I can read it and see what they are saying.
In other states, outside of Oklahoma, to communitize may mean to bring separate tracts together to make a larger unit for drilling. So, a company might communitize 4 160-acres tracts so that the drilling of one well will extend all oil and gas leases within that 640 acre tract, subject to the terms of each oil and gas lease. In Oklahoma, the Corporation Commission will frequently form a drilling and spacing unit of a section so that the drilling of one well in the drilling and spacing unit (to a spaced formation) will extend all oil and gas leases in that drilling and spacing unit. This is a function of Oklahoma law designed to prevent waste and the drilling of too many or too few wells.
In this section, I suspect there are BIA leases. As you can imagine, the BIA and the BLM are not subject to the conservation laws of the state of Oklahoma (or any other state). So, if the OCC spaced section 33, the BIA lease would not be extended, or if drilled on the BIA tract, the BIA could claim all of the royalty, not just a proportionate share. A communtization agreement is an agreement by the lessees and the BIA wherein they agree that their lease is part of the larger unit (640 acres, usually). Its just a way to get the BIA to agree with what happens under a spacing order.
Yeah, all of my stuff is through the BIA.