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Permalink Reply by HBP on May 19, 2012 at 2:37

I defer to your attorney's opinion, but I doubt they actually perforated the well outside of the specific unit boundaries (unless it was drilled from off unit across the South unit line, and even then they would try to avoid perforation until in-unit).  So I don't see it "holding" anything outside of the established unit (with the facts presented so far). 

I would be more concerned about drainage issues if I was in the adjacent tract (or its lessee) in the adjacent unit to where they broke the 330.  If this operator/lessee is also the lessee of the tract adjacent then they probably won't be as worried.  But even recently, we have seen operators purposely drill lease line protection wells in their own unit when a different operator next door just drilled a normal horizontal near their unit line but spaced correctly (meaning the companies were concerned enough about drainage even at the correct spacing), so if they ignore the 330, then the adjacent owner needs to know by how much and would there be a drainage issue.  We have not seen much litigation for the Haynesville addressing how far these wells may drain and a Lessor's implied duty to prevent against drainage. 

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