(A) The chief of the division of oil and gas resources management, upon the chief's own motion or upon application by the owners of sixty-five per cent of the land area overlying the pool, shall hold a hearing to consider the need for the operation as a unit of an entire pool or part thereof. In calculating the sixty-five per cent, an owner's entire interest in each tract in the proposed unit area, including any divided, undivided, partial, fee, or other interest in the tract, shall be included to the fullest extent of that interest. An application by owners shall be accompanied by a nonrefundable fee of ten thousand dollars and by such information as the chief may request.

The chief shall make an order providing for the unit operation of a pool or part thereof if the chief finds that such operation is reasonably necessary to increase substantially the ultimate recovery of oil and gas, and the value of the estimated additional recovery of oil or gas exceeds the estimated additional cost incident to conducting the operation. The order shall be upon terms and conditions that are just and reasonable and shall prescribe a plan for unit operations that shall include:

(1) A description of the unitized area, termed the unit area;

(2) A statement of the nature of the operations contemplated;

(3) An allocation to the separately owned tracts in the unit area of all the oil and gas that is produced from the unit area and is saved, being the production that is not used in the conduct of operations on the unit area or not unavoidably lost. The allocation shall be in accord with the agreement, if any, of the interested parties. If there is no such agreement, the chief shall determine the value, from the evidence introduced at the hearing, of each separately owned tract in the unit area, exclusive of physical equipment, for development of oil and gas by unit operations, and the production allocated to each tract shall be the proportion that the value of each tract so determined bears to the value of all tracts in the unit area.

(4) A provision for the credits and charges to be made in the adjustment among the owners in the unit area for their respective investments in wells, tanks, pumps, machinery, materials, and equipment contributed to the unit operations;

(5) A provision providing how the expenses of unit operations, including capital investment, shall be determined and charged to the separately owned tracts and how the expenses shall be paid;

(6) A provision, if necessary, for carrying or otherwise financing any person who is unable to meet the person's financial obligations in connection with the unit, allowing a reasonable interest charge for such service;

(7) A provision for the supervision and conduct of the unit operations, in respect to which each person shall have a vote with a value corresponding to the percentage of the expenses of unit operations chargeable against the interest of that person;

(8) The time when the unit operations shall commence, and the manner in which, and the circumstances under which, the unit operations shall terminate;

(9) Such additional provisions as are found to be appropriate for carrying on the unit operations, and for the protection or adjustment of correlative rights.

(B) No order of the chief providing for unit operations shall become effective unless and until the plan for unit operations prescribed by the chief has been approved in writing by those owners who, under the chief's order, will be required to pay at least sixty-five per cent of the costs of the unit operation, and also by the royalty or, with respect to unleased acreage, fee owners of sixty-five per cent of the acreage to be included in the unit. If the plan for unit operations has not been so approved by owners and royalty owners at the time the order providing for unit operations is made, the chief shall upon application and notice hold such supplemental hearings as may be required to determine if and when the plan for unit operations has been so approved. If the owners and royalty owners, or either, owning the required percentage of interest in the unit area do not approve the plan for unit operations within a period of six months from the date on which the order providing for unit operations is made, the order shall cease to be of force and shall be revoked by the chief.

An order providing for unit operations may be amended by an order made by the chief, in the same manner and subject to the same conditions as an original order providing for unit operations, provided that:

(1) If such an amendment affects only the rights and interests of the owners, the approval of the amendment by the royalty owners shall not be required.

(2) No such order of amendment shall change the percentage for allocation of oil and gas as established for any separately owned tract by the original order, except with the consent of all persons owning interest in the tract.

The chief, by an order, may provide for the unit operation of a pool or a part thereof that embraces a unit area established by a previous order of the chief. Such an order, in providing for the allocation of unit production, shall first treat the unit area previously established as a single tract, and the portion of the unit production so allocated thereto shall then be allocated among the separately owned tracts included in the previously established unit area in the same proportions as those specified in the previous order.

Oil and gas allocated to a separately owned tract shall be deemed, for all purposes, to have been actually produced from the tract, and all operations, including, but not limited to, the commencement, drilling, operation of, or production from a well upon any portion of the unit area shall be deemed for all purposes the conduct of such operations and production from any lease or contract for lands any portion of which is included in the unit area. The operations conducted pursuant to the order of the chief shall constitute a fulfillment of all the express or implied obligations of each lease or contract covering lands in the unit area to the extent that compliance with such obligations cannot be had because of the order of the chief.

Oil and gas allocated to any tract, and the proceeds from the sale thereof, shall be the property and income of the several persons to whom, or to whose credit, the same are allocated or payable under the order providing for unit operations.

No order of the chief or other contract relating to the sale or purchase of production from a separately owned tract shall be terminated by the order providing for unit operations, but shall remain in force and apply to oil and gas allocated to the tract until terminated in accordance with the provisions thereof.

Notwithstanding divisions (A) to (H) of section 1509.73 of the Revised Code and rules adopted under it, the chief shall issue an order for the unit operation of a pool or a part of a pool that encompasses a unit area for which all or a portion of the mineral rights are owned by the department of transportation.

Except to the extent that the parties affected so agree, no order providing for unit operations shall be construed to result in a transfer of all or any part of the title of any person to the oil and gas rights in any tract in the unit area. All property, whether real or personal, that may be acquired for the account of the owners within the unit area shall be the property of such owners in the proportion that the expenses of unit operations are charged.

Amended by 133rd General Assembly File No. TBD, HB 166, §101.01, eff. 10/17/2019.

Amended by 131st General Assembly File No. TBD, HB 64, §101.01, eff. 9/29/2015.

Amended by 129th General AssemblyFile No.125, SB 315, §101.01, eff. 9/10/2012.

Amended by 129th General AssemblyFile No.28, HB 153, §101.01, eff. 9/29/2011.

Effective Date: 06-14-2000 .