In Tyler County I know of one shallow vertical well which was drilled in 2016 apparently to prevent expiration of a lease. There has been no production from that well and apparently no attempt has been made to put into production. Do you know of mineral owners who have had this same experience?
John,
Yes, this became a big issue (and continues to be one) around 2015 in Northern WV. Many wells were drilled and left to be completed at a later date. If you do some creative searching at the WV DEP website you can actually find a list of wells that are in this scenario…and it will probably end up creating additional headaches for operators who didn’t take appropriate action to address these issues earlier. It may not have been the plan to do that depending on the operator but the drop in commodity prices made it the reality. Your lease may/should speak to these issues about how long an operator has to make sure a well is “capable of production” after drilling operations have occurred and the rig is offsite.
It’s not unique for expirations to determine the drilling schedule but once they drill it does generally trigger requirements for completion/next development steps.
Thanks,
Nick Hunley, Attorney, CPL Disclaimer: This post is for information purposes only and is not legal advice.