(1) The governing board of the State Department of Geology and Mineral Industries upon its own motion may, and upon the application of any interested person shall, hold a hearing to consider the need for the operation as a unit of one or more pools or parts thereof in a field.

Terms Used In Oregon Statutes 520.260

  • Field: means the general area underlaid by one or more pools. See Oregon Statutes 520.005
  • Gas: means all natural gas and all other fluid hydrocarbons not defined as oil in subsection (5) of this section, including condensate originally in the gaseous phase in the reservoir. See Oregon Statutes 520.005
  • Oil: means crude petroleum oil and all other hydrocarbons, regardless of gravity, that are produced in liquid form by ordinary production methods, but does not include liquid hydrocarbons that were originally in a gaseous phase in the reservoir. See Oregon Statutes 520.005
  • Person: means any natural person, partnership, corporation, association, receiver, guardian, fiduciary, administrator, representative of any kind, or the State of Oregon and any public body as defined in ORS § 174. See Oregon Statutes 520.005
  • Pool: means an underground reservoir containing a common accumulation of oil and natural gas. See Oregon Statutes 520.005

(2) The board shall make an order providing for the unit operation of a pool or part thereof if it finds that:

(a) Unit operation is reasonably necessary to effectively carry on pressure control, pressure maintenance or repressuring operations, cycling operations, water flooding operations, injection operations, or any combination thereof, or any other method of recovery designed to substantially increase the ultimate recovery of oil from the pool or pools; and

(b) The value of the estimated additional recovery of oil or gas exceeds the estimated additional cost incident to conducting unit operations. [1961 c.671 § 2; 2007 c.672 § 19]