All Advice by Date

91 posts found, showing 20 per page

Should You Take Ownership of a Well to Keep Free Gas? If So, How?
Free Gas Advice WVSORO October 12, 2024
WVSORO does not recommend having ownership of an old gas well transferred to the surface owner in order to keep free gas for a home.  Owning a well means that when the well needs to be plugged, it is you who will be responsible if the State acts. More
Issues: Oil and Gas

Should surface owners sign pore space lease etc. papers? If so, how much money should you get?
Advice WVSORO March 7, 2024
What should you do if someone knocks on your door and wants to lease the pore space in the formations under your surface land? More

Panel discussion on pipelines.
Pipeline Advice WVSORO December 15, 2023
In 2014 WVSORO had a membership meeting that included a panel discussion on pipelines.  The two videos below will let you view that. More

Farmland preservation is now OK for surface only owners.
Advice WVSORO November 15, 2023
Many surface owners have owned their farmland for generations and want it to remain farmland for future generations.  Another scenario is that sometimes landowners who more recently acquired their surface farmland want to see their land saved from development as suburbs or from industrial development.  More

What is a “Division Order”? 
Leasing / Amendment Advice WVSORO November 15, 2023
Do I have to sign it to get my royalties after the well is drilled? More
Issues: Minerals-Royalties

A judge rules surface owners with unplugged, inactive wells on them can sue the driller to make them plug the well or sue for money to plug the well
Leasing / Amendment Advice WVSORO April 22, 2023
Diversified and EQT say that surface owners can't sue about unplugged wells because the drillers have entered into well plugging consent orders with the DEP. Because the consent order of Diversified would only require the plugging of wells in 400 years and for other reasons the judge ruled that surface owners can sue. More
Issues: Oil and Gas

WVSORO comments to EPA about how Inflation Reduction Act money should be used.
Abandoned Well Advice WVSORO January 17, 2023
Here is an op-ed written by WVSORO co-founder that appeared in the Charleston Gazette-Mail.  The op-ed mimics comments that were made to EPA about how the money should be used to find and reduce methane leaks on surface owners' land and not subsidize drillers who have wells they should already be plugging. More
Issues: Abandoned wells, Orphaned wells

Reducing Noise in Gas Drilling and Production
Noise Advice WVSORO November 4, 2022
Sound is a form of energy. Think of throwing a rock in to a pool of water; it will make waves that move away from the rock. As the waves get farther from the rock, they get weaker More

If you find out there is a proposal to plug an oil or gas well on your land, what should you do?
Abandoned Well Advice, Advice WVSORO July 19, 2022
A big increase in well plugging is starting to happen. To know how you should react go to our web page, and do so right away! More
Issues: Abandoned wells

Have  you been threatened with forced pooling/unitization?  Have your received papers giving you notice of a forced pooling/unitization hearing? 
Leasing / Amendment Advice WVSORO June 7, 2022
This is WVSORO's advice to mineral owners (and assurance to surface owners) after passage of forced pooling/unitization legislation effective June, 2022. More
Issues: Pooling

SB 694 passed by the 2022 Legislature authorizing forced unitization of mineral tracts is OK because it is good for surface owners, and OK for mineral owners
Blog, Leasing / Amendment Advice WVSORO March 14, 2022
Forced unitization bills, often termed "forced pooling" bills, have been very controversial for years.  WVSORO has always said a good forced pooling bill would be a good thing because it lessens the number of wells and well pads needed to produce natural gas for whatever market there is for natural gas.  It is just that in prior years we have never seen a good bill, just one that favors industry over surface owners and those of our members who also own some minerals.  This year's bill, SB 694, is not quite a "good" bill, but because of all the good surface protections it contains, and because it is OK to most mineral owners, and because the industry dominates the Legislature and could do so even more after the next election, WVSORO thinks this bill is OK and told the Legislature so.  More
Issues: Pooling

New program to open up carbon market to small forest owners in West Virginia
Leasing / Amendment Advice WVSORO October 20, 2021
A new program enabling owners of small forestlands to prosper from improving forest health while slowing climate change is launching in West Virginia. More
Issues: Leasing

Surface Neighbors Can Still Sue for Nuisance Sometimes
Pads and Other Disturbance Advice WVSORO June 14, 2021
Elsewhere in this newsletter is an article explaining that as a result of a West Virginia Supreme Court decision, in almost all cases, surface owners can sue for substantial money if a driller uses their surface for a pad, road etc. for a horizontal  well -- even sometimes if the surface owner already signed an agreement. More
Issues: Horizontal wells, Nuisance suits, Roads, Well pads

Full analysis of West Virginia Supreme Court case on nuisance
Pads and Other Disturbance Advice WVSORO June 14, 2021
A Surface Lawyer's Take on Andrews vs. Antero Resources Corporation 241 W.Va. 796, 828 S.E.2d 858 (2019) Prepared November 1, 2019, by David McMahon. J.D. More
Issues: Nuisance suits

WVSORO Sample Answer to a Partition Suit
Partition Suit Advice Kayla Young August 19, 2020
Our co-founder lawyer has drafted a sample that can be used to fight a partition suit filed in Circuit Court that attempts to take a mineral owner's interest in their land from them. More
Issues: Partition suits

Cotenancy/Forced Pooling By OGCC can be challenged
Blog, Leasing / Amendment Advice Kayla Young June 25, 2020
WVSORO believes that two of the five members of the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission are not qualified to hold their positions. More
Issues: Leasing, Oil and Gas

I own a share of a mineral tract and I have been included in (or threatened with) a partition suit. What should I do? A West Virginia Supreme Court case stops mineral partition suits. Use it!
Partition Suit Advice WVSORO April 2, 2020
If you are sued for partition of your interest in a mineral tract, or if you are just threatened with such a lawsuit to try to get you to sign a lease or to sign a lease with terms that you do not want, do not be alarmed.  You should know that the West Virginia Supreme Court has made a decision which we believe says that minerals are not subject to partition. More
Issues: Partition suits

Have you been sued, or threatened to be sued, for partition of your minerals?
Advice, Leasing / Amendment Advice Kayla Young December 17, 2019
Drillers have to get all of the co-owners (usually heirs of family property, and technically "cotenants") to sign a lease or a pooling amendment to a lease, before they can drill.  What if the driller cannot get all the co-owners to sign but the driller still wants to drill? More
Issues: Leasing, Minerals-Royalties, Oil and Gas

Orphaned Wells: The Widespread Problem and the Potential Solutions
Advice Kayla Young October 10, 2019
WVSORO believes that the most widespread property rights and pollution issue in West Virginia is orphaned oil and gas wells. There are 4,500 already on property owners across the State. We predict another 10,000 in 30 years. The Legislature needs to take action. More
Issues: Orphaned wells

If You Get an EQT Class Action Benefit Notice, Do Not Sign for the “Optional Pooling Benefits!”
Advice, Updates and Alerts Kayla Young October 7, 2019
9500 people are getting a "Tawney [Non-]Compliant Flat Rate Claim Form and Benefit Notice" regarding the settlement of the royalty class action case of Kay Co., v. EQT Production Co. If you got that, WVSORO recommends that you DO NOT SIGN ON PAGE THREE for the optional pooling benefits provided in section "B" beginning on page 2 for leases in Wetzel, Doddridge, Harrison, Marion, Marshall, Monongalia, Ritchie, Taylor and Tyler Counties. More