West Virginia Code 22C-8-8 – Distance limitations
(a) If the well operator and the objecting coal seam owners present or represented at the time and place fixed by the chair for consideration of the objections to the proposed drilling location are unable to agree upon a drilling location, then the written order of the board shall direct the director to refuse to issue a drilling permit unless the following distance limitations are observed:
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 22C-8-8
- Board: means the Shallow Gas Well Review Board provided for in section four of this article. See West Virginia Code 22C-8-2
- Chair: means the chair of the Shallow Gas Well Review Board provided for in section four of this article. See West Virginia Code 22C-8-2
- Director: means the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection as established in article one, chapter . See West Virginia Code 22C-8-2
- Gas: means all natural gas and all other fluid hydrocarbons not defined as oil in subdivision (15) of this section. See West Virginia Code 22C-8-2
- Oil: means natural crude oil or petroleum and other hydrocarbons, regardless of gravity, which are produced at the well in liquid form by ordinary production methods and which are not the result of condensation of gas after it leaves the underground reservoir. See West Virginia Code 22C-8-2
- Owner: when used with reference to any coal seam, includes any person or persons who own, lease or operate the coal seam. See West Virginia Code 22C-8-2
- Person: means any natural person, corporation, firm, partnership, partnership association, venture, receiver, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary or other representative of any kind, and includes any government or any political subdivision or any agency thereof. See West Virginia Code 22C-8-2
- Well: means any shaft or hole sunk, drilled, bored or dug into the earth or into underground strata for the extraction, injection or placement of any liquid or gas, or any shaft or hole sunk or used in conjunction with the extraction, injection or placement. See West Virginia Code 22C-8-2
- Well operator: means any person who proposes to or does locate, drill, operate or abandon any well. See West Virginia Code 22C-8-2
(1) For all shallow wells with a depth less than three thousand feet, there shall be a minimum distance of one thousand feet from the drilling location to the nearest existing well as defined in subsection (b) of this section; and
(2) For all shallow wells with a depth of three thousand feet or more, there shall be a minimum distance of one thousand five hundred feet from the drilling location to the nearest existing well as defined in subsection (b) of this section, except that where the distance from the drilling location to such nearest existing well is less than two thousand feet but more than one thousand five hundred feet and a coal seam owner has objected, the gas operator shall have the burden of establishing the need for the drilling location less than two thousand feet from such nearest existing well. Where the distance from the drilling location proposed by the operator or designated by the board to the nearest existing well as defined in subsection (b) of this section is greater than two thousand feet, distance criterion will not be a ground for objection by a coal seam owner.
(b) The words "existing well" as used in this section means (i) any well not plugged within nine months after being drilled to its total depth and either completed in the same target formation or drilled for the purpose of producing from the same target formation, and (ii) any unexpired, permitted drilling location for a well to the same target formation.
(c) The minimum distance limitations established by this section shall not apply if the proposed well be drilled through an existing or planned pillar of coal required for protection of a preexisting oil or gas well and the proposed well will neither require enlargement of such pillar nor otherwise have an adverse effect on existing or planned coal mining operations.
(d) Nothing in this article shall be construed to empower the board to order the director to issue a drilling permit to any person other than the well operator filing the application which is the subject of the proceedings.