Current through Pa Acts 2024-53, 2024-56 through 2024-92
Section 406 - Drilling permits(a) Before drilling any well which is to penetrate the Onondaga or deeper horizons or a depth of three thousand eight hundred feet, whichever is deeper, the well operator shall obtain a permit. The well operator shall have a plat prepared on the same form required by the division under the "Gas Operations Well-Drilling Petroleum and Coal Mining Act" and shall file said plat with the division, together with an application on a form to be furnished by the division for a permit to drill a well at said location. The division shall, consistent with the "Gas Operations Well-Drilling Petroleum and Coal Mining Act," within ten days of the receipt of such application, issue a drilling permit to the well operator unless the requested location of the well will conflict with a spacing or pooling order previously entered or unless an application for such an order has been filed and is then pending. In areas in which no spacing order has been entered and no application is pending, no permit shall be issued for the drilling of a well unless the location of the well is at least three hundred thirty feet from the nearest outside boundary line of the lease on which it is located: Provided, however, That if the lease is included in a voluntary unit, a well may be located without regard to lease lines if it is not within three hundred thirty feet of the nearest unit line: And provided further, That the commission after notice and hearing may waive this requirement. Any applicant or other person aggrieved by any order granting or refusing a permit shall have the same right to appeal therefrom as is provided in section 13 of this act. (b) The drilling or operation of any well in violation of any spacing or pooling order is hereby prohibited. Where a well is to be drilled on a unit created pursuant to a spacing or pooling order under this act, there shall be included in the plat required to be filed under subsection (a) of section 6 , a survey of the entire spacing unit, showing the location and acreage content of all tracts or portions of tracts included within the spacing unit: Provided, however, That if all of the operators and royalty owners included in the unit agree on the amount of acreage contained in each tract included in the unit, and file a stipulation to that effect, a survey shall not be necessary. Where accurate surveys of the spacing unit or tracts included therein are available, they may be used, and a new survey shall not be required.1961, July 25, P.L. 825, § 6.