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SENATE BILL NO. 244
IN THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE - SECOND SESSION
BY THE SENATE RESOURCES COMMITTEE
Introduced: 5/2/22
Referred: Resources
A BILL
FOR AN ACT ENTITLED
1 "An Act relating to the establishment of oil and gas drilling units, spacing, and
2 patterns."
3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:
4 * Section 1. AS 31.05.100(a) is amended to read:
5 (a) For the prevention of waste, to protect and enforce [THE] correlative rights
6 [OF LESSEES IN A POOL], and to avoid the augmenting and accumulation of risks
7 arising from the drilling of an excessive number of wells, or the reduced recovery that
8 [WHICH] might result from too small a number of wells, the commission may
9 [SHALL, AFTER A HEARING,] establish a drilling unit or units for each pool. The
10 establishment of a unit for gas shall be limited to the production of gas.
11 * Sec. 2. AS 31.05.100(b) is amended to read:
12 (b) Each well permitted to be drilled on a drilling unit shall be drilled under
13 the rules and regulations and in accordance with the spacing pattern as the commission
14 prescribes for the pool in which the well is located. Exceptions to the rules and
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1 spacing pattern may be granted where it is shown [, AFTER NOTICE AND
2 HEARING,] that the unit is partly outside the pool, or that for some other reason a
3 well [SO] located on the unit would be nonproductive, or topographical conditions
4 [ARE SUCH AS TO] make the drilling at [SUCH] a location unduly burdensome. If
5 an exception is granted, the commission shall take [SUCH] action to [AS WILL]
6 offset any advantage that [WHICH] the person securing the exception may have over
7 other producers because [BY REASON] of the drilling of the well as an exception,
8 and so that drainage from developed units to the tract with respect to which the
9 exception is granted will be prevented or minimized, and the producer of the well
10 drilled as an exception will be allowed to produce not [NO] more than a just and
11 equitable share of the oil and gas in the pool.
12 * Sec. 3. AS 31.05.100 is amended by adding a new subsection to read:
13 (f) The commission may adopt well spacing regulations to protect correlative
14 rights.
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Statutes affected:
SB0244A, AM SB 244, introduced 05/02/2022: 31.05.100