Gas land pooling discussion revived in Harrisburg
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HARRISBURG -- Gov. Tom Corbett has said he won't sign it. Top lawmakers call it a "deal breaker" and have cautioned that firearms should be taken away from the citizenry before it is approved.
And yet, with six short bullet points, the Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission has revived debate over whether to allow land to be gathered into a larger drilling unit, even against a property owner's wishes.
That practice, commonly referred to as "pooling," sparked immediate controversy when it began circulating in Harrisburg last session. Opponents portrayed it as a grab by gas drillers at private property rights. Top Republican lawmakers rejected it -- even as some rank-and-filers had begun drafting a measure.
"If you are going to take their property, you better take their guns first," quipped then-Minority Leader, now House Speaker, Sam Smith to reporters in the fall.
PG CHARTSNow, that policy is being re-cast as a way to protect property owners from the prospect of their natural gas being stranded -- and royalty dollars never realized -- due to an uncooperative neighbor or competing company that can't resolve leasing disputes.
A current proposal would allow pooling only for units where all the property owners have leased their gas rights, an approach that the governor's spokesman has said could change his anti-pooling stance. Only drilling companies would be forced to allow pooling, not property owners who haven't signed leases.
The governor's shale commission, borrowing language used by industry officials and some academics, called pooling a win-win. They argued that updates to the state's conservation law would maximize gas production while minimizing costs and the amount of land disturbed.
"The stranding of gas correlates with lost jobs," Penn State geologist Terry Engelder told his fellow commission members at their final meeting.
But their vague recommendation gave only bare-bones directions for how pooling should be regulated. Looking to other states offers some ideas on how pooling could occur in the Marcellus.
Pooling involves combining the mineral interests of two or more parties in order to drain gas from a certain amount of land, said Bruce Kramer, a retired Texas Tech law professor who specializes in oil and gas cases.
First Published August 7, 2011 12:00 am
