Spacing Unit

A spacing unit is the area of land a state conservation agency assigns to a well in a given pool or zone. The spacing order fixes the unit's size and shape and where the well may be located. Spacing sets the unit. Combining the separately owned interests inside it is pooling (see Pooling).

North Dakota

N.D.C.C. 38-08-07 directs the Industrial Commission to set spacing units:

• "When necessary to prevent waste, to avoid the drilling of unnecessary wells, or to protect correlative rights, the commission shall establish spacing units for a pool."
• "Spacing units when established must be of uniform size and shape for the entire pool," although the Commission may divide a pool into zones with different units for each zone.
• "An order establishing spacing units for a pool must specify the size and shape of each unit and the location of the permitted well thereon."

North Dakota defines a pool as "an underground reservoir containing a common accumulation of oil or gas or both" (N.D.C.C. 38-08-02).

Oklahoma

Under 52 O.S. 87.1(a), the Corporation Commission may "establish well spacing and drilling units of specified and approximately uniform size and shape covering any common source of supply." The statute sets size limits of its own:

• No more than forty acres for oil in a common source of supply whose top "lies less than four thousand (4,000) feet below the surface," and no more than eighty acres where the top lies between four thousand and 9,990 feet, except for reservoir dewatering (87.1(d)).
• Units over "six hundred forty (640) acres for a gas well plus ten percent (10%) tolerance" not in production or drilling on the effective date of the act "shall be de-spaced," except for horizontal units allowed by 87.1(f).
• Horizontal units "of up to one thousand two hundred eighty (1,280) acres plus tolerances and variances" (87.1(f)).
• Drilling into a spaced source of supply "at a location other than that fixed by the order is hereby prohibited" (87.1(e)).

Federal leases

Federal leases follow state spacing through communitization. Under 43 CFR 3105.22, when a federal lease "cannot be independently developed and operated in conformity with an established well-spacing or well-development program," BLM may approve a communitization agreement. Under 43 CFR 3105.23(b), when "the spacing unit is subject to a State pooling order after the date of first sale," the agreement takes the effective date of the order.

Why it matters in mineral title research

• The spacing order defines the land whose owners share in a well. Its legal description, the pool or zone, and any later amendments have to be read together.
• Unit sizes can differ by depth under the same tract (see Depth Severance).
• Spacing and pooling orders are issued by the state agency, and communitization agreements are filed with BLM (43 CFR 3105.21), so agency records have to be searched along with the county records.