By Olman J. Valverde

Oil and gas resources often lie under many different parcels of land, with different owners, especially in urban areas. What happens when the owners of most of the property in an oil field want to proceed with exploiting those resources, but a few holdouts object?

In California and many other states, there is a way to overcome this problem. It is a legal procedure called “unitization.” Essentially it allows minerals to be accessed under all of the property, including that owned by the non-consenting landowners, by obtaining approval from the State Supervisor of Oil and Gas.

The procedure, including the steps that must be followed in California, is outlined in an article by Olman J. Valverde, an attorney with Luna & Glushon specializing in oil and gas issues. The article is posted here.