landman.trainingWorkbook · Unit 5 Supplement

Oklahoma Forced Pooling & OCC Order Workbook.

How Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) drilling and spacing orders establish 640-acre or multi-section horizontal units, how statutory forced pooling works under 52 O.S. § 87.1, and how to track 20-day respondent elections.

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Topic: OCC spacing orders, forced pooling elections, and deemed-election math
Statutes cited: 52 O.S. § 87.1; OAC 165:5-7-6 and 165:5-7-7
Cost: Free self-study

Workbook checklist

Verify the OCC drilling and spacing order for the target common source of supply.
Identify every unleased mineral owner and working-interest respondent in the unit.
Track the 20-day election window and bonus payment deadline after the pooling order issues.

MethodSpacing units and pooling elections

Key rules

Distinguish voluntary lease pooling from statutory OCC forced pooling.
Read the bonus and royalty combinations offered in an OCC pooling order.
Understand what happens when a respondent makes no written election within 20 days.

In Oklahoma, when two or more owners in an established drilling and spacing unit have not agreed to pool their interests for a proposed well, the applicant can petition the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) for a compulsory pooling order under 52 O.S. § 87.1.

Drilling and spacing order comes first. Before pooling a unit for a target formation (a "common source of supply" such as the Woodford, Mississipian, Red Fork, or Springer), an OCC spacing order establishes the unit size (typically 640 acres or a multi-section horizontal unit) and permitted well location tolerances.
Good-faith negotiation and respondent notice. The applicant must make a bona fide effort to lease or reach agreement with each owner in the unit and give statutory notice of the pooling hearing to all known and unknown-address respondents.
The 20-day election window. Once the OCC enters the pooling order, each respondent typically has 20 days from the date of the order to elect in writing either (a) to participate in the well by paying their proportionate share of estimated drilling and completion costs, or (b) to accept one of the cash bonus and royalty options set by the order.
Deemed election and bonus payment. If a respondent fails to make a timely written election, the order deems them to have elected the default cash bonus and royalty option specified in the order, and the operator must pay or escrow the bonus within the statutory window (typically 35 days).

Common source of supply: A distinct geological formation or group of formations designated as a single producing reservoir in an OCC spacing order.
Participate (elect to pay): Choosing to bear a working-interest share of actual well costs in exchange for receiving the full working-interest revenue share.
In-lieu election: Choosing not to pay well costs and instead taking a cash bonus per net mineral acre plus a stated royalty fraction (such as 1/8, 3/16, or 1/4) under the pooling order.
Curative escrow: Holding a pooled respondent's cash bonus in an escrow account when title is clouded or the owner's address is unknown.

Sources. 52 O.S. § 87.1; Oklahoma Corporation Commission Rules of Practice (OAC 165:5).

Worked ExamplePooled respondent NRI math

Other workbooks

Worked problem. A 640-acre Oklahoma spacing unit is pooled by OCC order. Respondent R owns 16 unleased net mineral acres in the section and elects the pooling order option offering a 3/16 total royalty (leaving 13/16 net revenue to the working interest). What is R's royalty decimal in the unit, and how much net revenue decimal does R's tract contribute to the operator?

16 / 640 = 0.0250 → R = 0.00468750 · Op = 0.02031250

Together, R's royalty decimal (0.00468750) plus the operator's net revenue decimal attributable to R's pooled tract (0.02031250) equal 16 / 640 = 0.02500000, the exact 2.50% tract factor of R's 16 net mineral acres in the 640-acre section.

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