Does PA have unit plats?

In PA, how does one figure out who has acreage in a production unit and how much of their acreage is within the unit. Other states have unit plats, does PA? I have seen plats that are associated with a drilling permit but all that shows is the orientation of the proposed drilled lateral. Does PA have a plat that shows the outline of the unit, who is in the unit and how much acreage each has within the unit? If so, how, exactly, does one find this?

I seem to recall that PA has unit declaration documents that are filed in the county courthouse each time a unit is formed. Do these contain unit plats?

If there is no unit plat, how does one know the unit shape? If it is a pooling of various leases together, does the outline of the unit (the pooled leases) exist anywhere?

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Permalink Reply by craig on September 25, 2016 at 10:18am

Once the unit is drilled and declared all property owners with their details will be filed with the County, but usually takes a month or more it seems. Unit Property owners are sent papers detailing their property  included in the unit as well. The platt is included in the county filing in all cases that i've looked at.

One other thing, the platt that is originally filed in the permitting process, with all drill site  info, can be had for free, but is preliminary...I don't have the contact info anymore though. You can probably find the link on the DEP or DCNR sites.

Permalink Reply by Hopeful on September 25, 2016 at 11:53am

The plat that you mentioned that is filed in the county, is it NOT filed with the PA governing body for oil and gas operators? (I don't know what that is called in PA... DEP or DCNR or just what.) If it is only filed with the county, that could be really hard to find. I mean, if every unit declaration or whatever they call it is simply filed as "unit declaration" and is NOT descriptive as to well name (in the county index), that is going to be a PITA to find for a large operator. Like, if it's Bradford county and drilled by Chesapeake, you would have to look at a LOT of unit declarations until you found it.

I am hoping it is easier to find than what I fear.

Permalink Reply by craig on September 25, 2016 at 7:06pm

It is an easy search in Beaver County, if you know where to look. In our county you search the name of the well site under the title "Miscellaneous". If you don't know the well site name, All you have to do is drive to the well site you are interested in and read the sign. If you can't do that, you could use anyones name that is part of the unit and it will be listed there as a Miscellaneous filing.

Hope this helps.

Permalink Reply by Theresa Kolk on September 25, 2016 at 11:05pm

in Pa, go to the DEP website, then type "oil and gas mapping" in the search box...you will get a disclaimer to read and agree to but then you will see a page you can make choices on as to what type of wells you want to see...I check oil and gas, conventional and non- .....when you click submit, you choose the county and/or municipality and/or operator you want....much simpler than it sounds...you will get a map with the wells in the area you have chosen....look for the icons on the left side of the map, click on the I for identify, then on the well you want to look at... a window will open up with info, scroll down till you see "display authorization documents" ..click on that, and you will get option to view, open the plat map which shows where the well is going and names of people in the well area....hope this helps. Theresa

Permalink Reply by Hopeful on September 26, 2016 at 12:13am

Lo and behold, I had already stumbled upon the site you mentioned when I saw your post. However, for this particular situation, there are four wells on one pad, and I couldn't find what you described. Then I thought to click on the four well dots and identify each (not just the bottom one) and I finally did see an option to "display authorization documents." However, for each well dot, I got "No documents found" or some such statement. From what you wrote, you must have actually found a unit plat in the past but apparently it's not there for this well.

Now, I did find a unit plat by visiting the Landex.com site. Problem is that it is expensive. What a ripoff that I cannot view the document, because there was no way to know exactly which plat it is that they list on the screen. I had to guess and purchase each one I thought might be it.

Bottom line is that I did find a unit plat but all of the info I have found just creates more confusion because I have not found a unit plat for the well I am looking for -- I found a unit plat for one of the wells on the pad, but not the one I am looking for. I don't know if it is clerical error from the DEP or the Landex site or the operator having submitted a clerical error.

I wish there was a GIS site that had a layer showing drilling/production units, and perhaps shalenavigator.com had it, but that company was bought out in 2014 by GeoSpatial and the shalenavigator site is dead, and the GeoSpatial site is extremely hard to navigate. I gave up on it, I have no idea if they have the units as a layer or not.

I am willing to pay a reasonable fee to a site if I could just find the info.

What a can of worms! The DEP site is really cool, if I could just find unit plats! It's weird that I did not find it on that site. Surely it is there. I mean, the operator has to submit drilling plats and such.

Permalink Reply by John Harrison on September 26, 2016 at 3:26am

If you are willing you can spend $25 and set up a Landex account and then you can download a unit plat for about 10 cents a page.  Typically only the last couple of pages in the document give you the information you want.  You can get a thumbnail preview for free.  There is a per minute charge as well but you get pretty good at clicking fast and using Print to File.  There is a a lot of stuff in the courthouse that is on line now so I found the $25 was well worth it.  Not all counties are on Landex but it seems yours is. 

If you go to the Bradford County area of this website you can see the excellent maps that Wayne Miller produces for Google Earth. 

The DEP recently updated their site and as near as I can see the biggest change is that "No Documents Found" replaces what used to be the really useful information including the complete permit.  I hope that is just a software glitch but I suspect it is not.  I went to the DEP office in Williamsport with my laptop and a scanner and they were very cooperative about providing the complete files for individual wells.  That was a couple of years ago.  You are correct in surmising that the DEP does NOT have accurate unit information - it is only at the courthouse.

Permalink Reply by Hopeful on September 27, 2016 at 12:05am

My bad about the $25 option on Landex. Heck, I spent almost that much on just two documents.

I wonder if the PA DEP is mineral owner friendly or oil company biased. They certainly have a nice site now, so, that's good, but they should require operators to submit not only drilling plats that show the lateral, but show the unit boundary, too. And who is in it and how many acres they have. And this info should be free. All too often, state oil and gas commissions are biased towards the industry, yet, it's only right that a mineral owner should be able to find data affecting his/her rights.

Permalink Reply by John Harrison on September 27, 2016 at 6:24am

Yes, the Landex account is a good deal.  When I first started, they only charged for the minutes you were logged in.  I would find the Instrument Number on the free Landex Webstore then go to the login site.  When I was on my game, I could print out an 8 or 10 page  .pdf file to my computer for 30 or 40 cents.  Now it costs 10 cents a page plus your logged in time, so I usually only print the pages I need.  I am hooked on researching old deeds and I have found the ones for my property back to the mid 1800s.

I am disappointed with the state website. When the GIS version first came out a few years ago, the entire permit document was included which showed the location of the well and the affected properties although they never showed the unit maps.  You would think that information which was part of the database would continue and would not just be left out.  I thought it was just part of rolling out the new version but it has been over a year now.  I may drop DEP an email to see if they have an explanation.

Permalink Reply by Kevin on September 27, 2016 at 5:38am

Landex is free to search when I use it. There are small fees if you want to purchase/download something.

 

Permalink Reply by Wayne Miller on September 28, 2016 at 1:33am

 Click on a unit and use the instrument # to find that unit declaration on Landex.

Permalink Reply by Debra Lynn Pennell on September 27, 2016 at 9:33am

Just wondering if it is ever possible an energy company could be drilling under someone''s property without their knowledge, or adding a horizontal leg under their property without them knowing, and without them telling the mineral owners. Thanks.

Permalink Reply by KAR on September 29, 2016 at 11:01am

The DEP requires that operators submit an as-drilled survey performed by an independent third party company. I think an operator would be caught... 

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