I am having difficulty finding information and/or litigation related to mineral rights owners receiving royalties for the take point gap in horizontal drilling. The take point gap runs from the kick off point (where the vertical drilling starts to curve) and the well bore (that occurs when the drilling is horizontal). That area, perhaps as much as 500’ is not typically included in the pooled area. However, I am considering the argument from multiple sides. On one hand, there is some reasoning for not compensating mineral rights owners in areas where oil intake is not directed. At the same time the land the drilling occurs on is designated to be a part of a set pool so one could argue that he should be compensated equally given he is part of the pooled surface acres and the drilling occurs on his land. Likewise some seepage will occur drawing some oil from the take point gap area. So, are you aware of any articles or litigation that address this issue? Thanks!
Most of time there are no perforations in that portion of the wellbore o that could be part of the reason they didn’t include it.
The curved portion of the wellbore does not have any perforations, therefore it produces no oil and doesn’t share in the production. Likewise, there are State-mandated “setback” limits that dictate the minimum distance the first perforation must be from the unit boundary.
The extra surface acres are not pooled into the drilling unit. A separate surface use agreement will compensate that landowner and is not part of the well.
(Moving my reply over here)
There’s typically casing across there reservoir from kickoff point to first take point, so it’d be similar rules to if you only had deep rights and had to drill through shallow reservoirs to get to the deeper ones. Or a directional well that has a surface location in Lease A but the well drifted into Lease B (so, lease B owners get the production). What generally matters in Texas is where the oil/gas enters the wellbore (note: I’m not a lawyer).
Now, there is some interesting emerging litigation regarding how multi-unit wells are allocated, and if it’s allowed, that might be of interest to you since completed wellbore in each unit is usually the way it’s divided
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