Forced Pooling Resurfaces in WV Legislature
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Forced Pooling Resurfaces in WV Legislature
No Forced Pooling or Eminent Domain
Ritchie lawmaker pushing ‘forced pooling’ no stranger to gas industry
From an Article by Andrew Brown, Charleston Gazette Mail, February, 6, 2016
As the West Virginia Legislature prepares to take up the issue of forced pooling once again, the lawmaker at the center of that gas leasing legislation is expected to have at least six new gas wells drilled on his property. Delegate Woody Ireland, R-Ritchie, has never been shy about sharing his experience as a land and mineral owner. In public meetings and interviews, the chairman of the House Energy Committee has often described himself as a cattle farmer who knows first hand what it’s like to negotiate with gas companies.
Now, as Ireland hopes to wrangle the controversial gas leasing law through the Legislature, public records show that Antero Resources, one of the state’s largest gas companies, intends to drill at least six new Marcellus gas wells on the edge of Ireland’s farm, adding to one existing horizontal well that was drilled through part of his minerals and completed in 2014. The newly permitted gas wells don’t mean Ireland will benefit from the forced pooling law, which would require holdout mineral owners to sign a lease if 80 percent of the neighboring owners have already agreed to drill. All of his neighboring mineral owners have already signed with Antero.
“Whether this bill goes through or not, it’s not going to have a financial impact on me,” said Ireland, who filed the bill on Friday. But the new wells would mean that Ireland can expect to receive additional royalty checks from Antero, a company involved in the pooling debate, once the wells are completed. Depending on gas prices, how much of Ireland’s acreage is included in each well and his agreed-upon royalty rate, Ireland could make tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars from the wells in a year. If Antero drills the horizontal wells on his property, Ireland would own a significant share of the royalty profits from four of the wells that would run southeast through a large part of his mineral holdings.
Public records show that Ireland’s share of production from the well that was finished in 2014 equals roughly 1 cent for every dollar of gas produced from the well. In six months in 2014, that well — the Ireland 1H — produced around 1.3 billion cubic feet of gas, according to state production data. There is no average price available for what producers were receiving for gas during those months. Al Schopp, Antero’s regional senior vice president, said he couldn’t comment on Ireland’s leases or the newly permitted wells. “Unfortunately, we are unable to discuss any particular wells, royalty owners, owner royalties per well or any details about specific wells,” Schopp said. “As a company, we have made it a policy that we don’t make any comment on our operations of any wells.”
The wells planned for Ireland’s property, which have been largely permitted by the state Department of Environmental Protection in the past year, illustrate Ireland’s direct participation in the development of the state’s gas resources and highlights his intimate knowledge of the industry. ...
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