West Virginia Code 22C-8-1 – Declaration of public policy; legislative findings
(a) It is hereby declared to be the public policy of this state and in the public interest to:
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 22C-8-1
- Board: means the Shallow Gas Well Review Board provided for in section four of this article. See West Virginia Code 22C-8-2
- Correlative rights: means the reasonable opportunity of each person entitled thereto to recover and receive without waste the gas in and under a tract or tracts, or the equivalent thereof. See West Virginia Code 22C-8-2
- 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: means all natural gas and all other fluid hydrocarbons not defined as oil in subdivision (15) of this section. See West Virginia Code 22C-8-2
- Gas operator: means any person who owns or has the right to develop, operate and produce gas from a pool and to appropriate the gas produced therefrom either for that person or for that person and others. See West Virginia Code 22C-8-2
- Just and equitable share of production: means , as to each person, an amount of gas in the same proportion to the total gas production from a well as that person'. See West Virginia Code 22C-8-2
- Pool: means an underground accumulation of gas in a single and separate natural reservoir (ordinarily a porous sandstone or limestone). See West Virginia Code 22C-8-2
- Royalty owner: means any owner of gas in place, or gas rights, to the extent that such owner is not a gas operator as defined in subdivision (13) of this section. See West Virginia Code 22C-8-2
- State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
- Well: means any shaft or hole sunk, drilled, bored or dug into the earth or into underground strata for the extraction, injection or placement of any liquid or gas, or any shaft or hole sunk or used in conjunction with the extraction, injection or placement. See West Virginia Code 22C-8-2
(1) Ensure the safe recovery of coal and gas;
(2) Foster, encourage and promote the fullest practical exploration, development, production, recovery and utilization of this state's coal and gas, where both are produced from beneath the same surface lands, by establishing procedures, including procedures for the establishment of drilling units, for the location of shallow gas wells without substantially affecting the right of the gas operator proposing to drill a shallow gas well to explore for and produce gas; and
(3) Safeguard, protect and enforce the correlative rights of gas operators and royalty owners in a pool of gas to the end that each such gas operator and royalty owner may obtain a just and equitable share of production from such pool of gas.
(b) The Legislature hereby determines and finds that gas found in West Virginia in shallow sands or strata has been produced continuously for more than one hundred years; that the placing of shallow wells has heretofore been regulated by the state for the purpose of ensuring the safe recovery of coal and gas, but that regulation should also be directed toward encouraging the fullest practical recovery of both coal and gas because modern extraction technologies indicate the desirability of such change in existing regulation and because the energy needs of this state and the United States require encouragement of the fullest practical recovery of both coal and gas; that in order to encourage and ensure the fullest practical recovery of coal and gas in this state and to further ensure the safe recovery of such natural resources, it is in the public interest to enact new statutory provisions establishing a shallow gas well review board which shall have the authority to regulate and determine the appropriate placing of shallow wells when gas well operators and owners of coal seams fail to agree on the placing of such wells, and establishing specific considerations, including minimum distances to be allowed between certain shallow gas wells, to be utilized by the shallow gas well review board in regulating the placing of shallow wells; that in order to encourage and ensure the fullest practical recovery of coal and gas in this state and to protect and enforce the correlative rights of gas operators and royalty owners of gas resources, it is in the public interest to enact new statutory provisions establishing a shallow gas well review board which shall also have authority to establish drilling units and order the pooling of interests therein to provide all gas operators and royalty owners with an opportunity to recover their just and equitable share of production.