COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 710
(By Senators Fanning and Foster)
____________
[Originating in the Committee on Energy, Industry and Mining;
reported February 20, 2008.]
____________
A BILL to amend and reenact §22-21-20 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to the elimination of the
requirement for spacing consent from coal entities along
horizontal sections of coalbed methane wells; clarifying
spacing orders; and requiring the coalbed methane well permit
applicant to plug the well, at the necessary time, in a manner
that will meet all state and federal requirements for
mine-through of the targeted coal seam.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §22-21-20 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 21. COALBED METHANE WELLS AND UNITS.
§22-21-20. Spacing.
No coalbed methane well may be drilled closer than one hundred
feet of the outermost boundary of the coalbed methane tract, leased
premises or unit from which coalbed methane is or will be produced or within one thousand six hundred linear feet of the
surface
location of an existing well or a proposed well for which a permit
application is on file, unless all owners and operators of any
affected workable coal seams agree in writing:
Provided, That for
horizontal wells, agreement from the affected workable coal seam
owners and operators of the nonvertical sections of the well is not
required, but the well operator is required as a condition of the
permit to plug or otherwise condition the well, at any time in the
future as may be necessary, in a manner that meets all applicable
federal and state requirements for mine-through of the targeted
seam. Affected workable coal seams for purposes of this section
shall be are those which will be penetrated or those seams more
than twenty-eight inches in thickness from which production is
targeted. Spacing shall otherwise be as provided in a pooling order
issued by the chief, an order establishing special field rules or
an other order issued by the review board.
________
(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to eliminate the requirement
for spacing consent from coal entities along horizontal sections
of coalbed methane wells while requiring the coalbed methane well
permit applicant to plug the well in a manner that meets state
and federal requirements for mine-through of the targeted coal
seam.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the
present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.)