Missouri Laws 259.110 – Production pooling authorized
1. When two or more separately owned tracts are embraced within a spacing unit, or when there are separately owned interests in all or a part of the spacing unit, then the owners and royalty owners thereof may pool their interests for the development and operation of the spacing unit. In the absence of voluntary pooling the council, upon the application of any interested person, shall enter an order pooling all interests in the spacing unit for the development and operations thereof. Each such pooling order shall be made after notice and hearing, and shall be upon terms and conditions that are just and reasonable, and that afford to the owner of each tract or interest in the spacing unit the opportunity to recover or receive, without unnecessary expense, his just and equitable share. Operations incident to the drilling of a well upon any portion of a spacing unit covered by a pooling order shall be deemed for all purposes the conduct of such operations upon each separately owned tract in the drilling unit by the several owners thereof. That portion of the production allocated to each tract included in a spacing unit covered by a pooling order shall, when produced, be deemed for all purposes to have been produced from such tract by a well drilled thereon.
2. Each pooling order shall make provision for the drilling and operation of a well on the spacing unit, and for the payment of the reasonable actual cost thereof by the owners of interests in the spacing unit, plus a reasonable charge for supervision. In the event of any dispute as to such costs the council shall determine the proper costs. If one or more of the owners shall drill and operate, or pay the expenses of drilling and operating the well for the benefit of others, then the owner or owners so drilling or operating shall, upon complying with the terms of section 259.130, have a lien on the share of production from the spacing unit accruing to the interest of each of the other owners for the payment of his proportionate share of such expenses. All the oil and gas subject to the lien shall be marketed and sold and the proceeds applied in payment of the expenses secured by such lien as provided for in section 259.100.
Terms Used In Missouri Laws 259.110
- Council: the state oil and gas council established by section 259. See Missouri Laws 259.050
- Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
- Gas: all natural gas and all other fluid hydrocarbons which are produced at the wellhead and not hereinbelow defined as oil. See Missouri Laws 259.050
- Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
- Oil: crude petroleum oil and other hydrocarbons regardless of gravity which are produced at the wellhead in liquid form and the liquid hydrocarbons known as distillate or condensate recovered or extracted from gas, other than gas produced in association with oil and commonly known as casinghead gas. See Missouri Laws 259.050
- Owner: the person who has the right to drill into and produce from a pool and to appropriate the oil or gas he produced therefrom either for himself or others or for himself and others. See Missouri Laws 259.050
- person: may extend and be applied to bodies politic and corporate, and to partnerships and other unincorporated associations. See Missouri Laws 1.020
- Pool: an underground reservoir containing a common accumulation of oil or gas or both. See Missouri Laws 259.050
- Well: any hole drilled in the earth for or in connection with the exploration, discovery, or recovery of oil or gas, or for or in connection with the underground storage of gas in natural formation, or for or in connection with the disposal of salt water, nonusable gas or other waste accompanying the production of oil or gas. See Missouri Laws 259.050