CPC applauds state Senate advancement of new statutory pooling regulations

The Colorado Petroleum Council (CPC) recently issued a statement applauding the Colorado Senate’s advancement of new regulations regarding statutory pooling.

“We are thrilled to see this bill head to the Governor’s desk for signature as the natural gas and oil industry supported improvements to the pooling statute that ensured increased protections for mineral and royalty owners,” Tracee Bentley, executive director of CPC, said. “CPC took the lead on this important bill and elected officials who supported this bill should be applauded for forgoing political partisanship to support a system that is more understandable and fair for all involved.”

The bill requires that mineral owners receive an offer at least 60 days before the hearing on the pooling order and that those letters use clear and concise language to explain the pooling procedures and the minteral owner’s options related to them. The legislation also clarifies that non-consenting mineral owners are immune from any liability costs related to incidents resulting from oil and natural gas development on that drilling unit.

Statutory pooling enables oil and natural gas drilling companies to extract minerals from a large underground “pool” even if they don’t have leases for the entire surface area above the pool, as long as they have leases for a certain percentage of the overall surface area. They typically use horizontal drilling or other similar methods to access the resources underneath the land they don’t have surface leases for.

The House previously advanced the legislation. It now heads to Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper for signature.