Many companies in the Pa, WV, and Ohio area are involved in the oil and gas play. It seems a lot of those companies are preparing the permits, unit maps, and designs, based on lidar and fitting deeds to georeferenced aerial mapping. One of the requirements of a permit is to show ties to two property corners for approximate location (any two property corners) of the property that the gas well lies in. Accuracies on the well drawings are typically listed as 5' +/-. There are no plats being prepared for each property owner nor are property boundaries being staked (actual survey of property, staking, and plats are not required). Occasionally, some field data is required to clear up questionable areas. To what extent is this considered surveying in each state?
> Many companies in the Pa, WV, and Ohio area are involved in the oil and gas play. It seems a lot of those companies are preparing the permits, unit maps, and designs, based on lidar and fitting deeds to georeferenced aerial mapping. One of the requirements of a permit is to show ties to two property corners for approximate location (any two property corners) of the property that the gas well lies in. Accuracies on the well drawings are typically listed as 5' +/-. There are no plats being prepared for each property owner nor are property boundaries being staked (actual survey of property, staking, and plats are not required). Occasionally, some field data is required to clear up questionable areas. To what extent is this considered surveying in each state?
To be assured that you have the gas royalties going to the right land owner you have to do a ground survey of the property. Actually this is a perfect example of the other thread that talks about a national parcel system and how that would have prevented the housing crisis. Your experience appears to show the opposite.
Two Property Corners ?
You do not know if 2 monuments are actually property corners until you survey much more than those 2 possible corners.
Paul in PA
In Texas, O&G is only regulated at the board level if you sign the plat. So, if you sign plat, it better meet MTS. The RRC doesn't require a surveyor make the plat, and two ties to the original grant and to the unit lines. That's it.
Unless I'm allowed to survey the entire unit at once, I don't sign these plats.
Oh, and it has to be at 1"=1000' on an 8.5x14", so you make one meet mts on those requirements. It's tough showing all bearings, distances, volumes/pages, corner calls, calls, survey names, etc, for 700+ acres on a legal sheet at 1" = 1000'.
I'm with Paul on this. How do you know if what you are tieing to is a property corner, without surveying the property?
No doubt it's different in the west. Here you need a surveyed (signed and stamped) plat filed with the state before a permit is given. The plat will show the placement of the proposed well bore in a Section and spacing unit. The spacing unit will determine ownership of the minerals for the well. Sometimes a large unit is created (a whole township) and every mineral owner in that township will participate in the production of each well drilled in the township. As for planning, most companies don't employ a surveyor for that.
PA Permits need to be signed and sealed by a surveyor who has attended the state DEP training course on permitting.
