Nearly every U.S. state that regulates gas production has pooling and spacing regulations that protect the correlative interests of every landowner that sits over a common pool or supply source of gas resources. Each owner must have an equal opportunity to obtain and produce their fair share of the gas resource. These laws are needed because gas flows beneath the surface (unlike solid mineral resources such as iron, copper or gold). Without pooling and spacing rules, the “Law of Capture” applies, which basically says that if you capture gas on your land you can keep it, regardless of whether that gas had been sitting under your property or flowed from your neighbor’s land.
Since Minnesota lacks comparable pooing and spacing rules for other types of natural resource development, the DNR looked at regulations in other gas-producing states when it developed recommendations for pooling and spacing requirements within a temporary regulatory framework. The finalized GTAC report included those recommendations, as well as a stand-alone regulatory best practices report that highlights pooling and spacing regulations in other states (amongst other topics). Both the GTAC recommendations and that report will support DNR’s pooling and spacing rulemaking for a permanent regulatory framework that governs gas resource development.
Role of a spacing unit
Voluntary Pooling
100% control