Ohio Oil and Gas Commission Issues First Decision on Forced Pooling
The Ohio Oil and Gas Commission issued its first decision under R.C. 1509.28 to provide for the compulsory pooling of property for oil and gas unit operations. In Gary L. Teeter Revocable Trust v. Division of Oil & Gas Resources Management, the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission ruled that a 69-acre farm must be included in unit operations occurring under the property. While the Commission ruled that the property would be “forced” into a unit against the will of the owner of the property, it specifically noted that the owner “benefits from from the statutory protections enacted to ensure that he will be fairly compensated for any resources that might be drawn from beneath his property as a result of the operation of a well, which the majority of his neighbors wish to have drilled.”