Terms Used In West Virginia Code > Chapter 22C > Article 9 - Oil and Gas Conservation

• Advice and consent: Under the Constitution, presidential nominations for executive and judicial posts take effect only when confirmed by the Senate, and international treaties become effective only when the Senate approves them by a two-thirds vote.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Attorney-at-law: A person who is legally qualified and licensed to practice law, and to represent and act for clients in legal proceedings.
• Commission: means the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and "commissioner" means the Oil and Gas Conservation Commissioner as provided for in §. See West Virginia Code 22C-9-2
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Correlative rights: means the reasonable opportunity of each person entitled thereto to recover and receive without waste the oil and gas in and under his or her tract or tracts, or the equivalent thereof. See West Virginia Code 22C-9-2
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Deep well: means any well, other than a shallow well, deep horizontal well, or a coalbed methane well, drilled to a formation below the top of the uppermost member of the "Onondaga Group". See West Virginia Code 22C-9-2
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Director: means the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection and "chief" means the Chief of the Office of Oil and Gas. See West Virginia Code 22C-9-2
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Gas: means all natural gas and all other fluid hydrocarbons not defined as oil as that term is defined in this section. See West Virginia Code 22C-9-2
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Horizontal drilling: means a method of drilling a well for the production of oil and gas that is intended to maximize the length of wellbore that is exposed to the formation and in which the wellbore is initially vertical but is eventually curved to become horizontal, or nearly horizontal, to be in a particular geologic formation. See West Virginia Code 22C-9-2
• Horizontal well: means an oil and gas well, other than a coalbed methane well, where the wellbore is initially drilled using a horizontal drilling method. See West Virginia Code 22C-9-2
• in writing: includes any representation of words, letters, or figures, whether by printing, engraving, writing, or otherwise. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
• Independent producer: means a producer of crude oil or natural gas whose allowance for depletion is determined under Section 613A of the federal Internal Revenue Code in effect on July 1, 1997. See West Virginia Code 22C-9-2
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Judgment: includes decrees and orders for the payment of money, or the conveyance or delivery of land or personal property, or some interest therein, or any undertaking, bond or recognizance which has the legal effect of a judgment. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Natural gas liquids: means the liquid hydrocarbons removed from the natural gas through the process of fractionation or condensation. See West Virginia Code 22C-9-2
• oath: shall be deemed to include an affirmation and the word "swear" or "sworn" to be complied with if the person referred to make solemn affirmation. See West Virginia Code 2-2-7
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• 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-9-2
• oil and gas: means "oil or gas or both". See West Virginia Code 22C-9-2
• Operator: means any owner of the right to develop, operate, and produce oil and gas from a pool and to appropriate the oil and gas produced therefrom, either for that person or for that person and others. See West Virginia Code 22C-9-2
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: means any natural person, corporation, limited liability company, partnership, 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-9-2
• Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
• Pool: means an underground accumulation of petroleum or gas in a single and separate reservoir (ordinarily a porous sandstone or limestone). See West Virginia Code 22C-9-2
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Royalty owner: means any owner of oil and gas in place, or oil and gas rights, to the extent that the owner is not an operator as that term is defined in this section. See West Virginia Code 22C-9-2
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Shallow well: means any well other than a shallow horizontal well or a coalbed methane well, drilled no deeper than 100 feet below the top of the Onondaga Group: Provided, That in no event may the Onondaga Group formation or any formation below the Onondaga Group be produced, perforated or stimulated in any manner. See West Virginia Code 22C-9-2
• State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Unconventional reservoir: means any geologic formation that contains or is otherwise productive of oil or natural gas that generally cannot be produced at economic flow rates or in economic volumes except by wells stimulated by multiple hydraulic fracture treatments, a horizontal wellbore, or by using multilateral wellbores or some other technique to expose more of the formation to the wellbore. See West Virginia Code 22C-9-2
• unit: means the acreage on which one or more wells may be drilled. See West Virginia Code 22C-9-2
• Vertical well: means an oil and gas well that does not utilize horizontal drilling methods. See West Virginia Code 22C-9-2
• Waste: means and includes:

  (A) Physical waste, as that term is generally understood in the oil and gas industry. See West Virginia Code 22C-9-2

• Well: means any shaft or hole sunk, drilled, bored, or dug into the earth or underground strata for the extraction of oil or gas. See West Virginia Code 22C-9-2