Ohio House moves to speed up oil, gas agreements

March 19, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

COLUMBUS

The Ohio House moved legislation Wednesday to speed up consideration of agreements by property owners who want to join together to tap oil and gas reserves on their lands.

HB 8, jointly sponsored by Reps. Christina Hagan of Alliance, R-50th, and Tim Ginter of Salem, R-5th, passed on a vote of 96-0 and heads to the Ohio Senate for further consideration.

The legislation focuses on “unitization,” a means by which landowners can combine acreage into units to allow oil and gas production.

There’s already a unitization process outlined in state law, as well as application requirements and a $10,000 fee. But the law does not stipulate a time frame for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to review and decide on such applications. That’s led to some landowners waiting a year or more for a decision from the state.

HB 8 calls for ODNR to have hearings on landowner agreements within 45 days of receiving applications and issue final decisions 30 days thereafter.

Hagan said some Ohioans have been waiting nearly two years for decisions from ODNR on landowner agreements.

“Unfortunately, certain conditions have served to delay and in several instances totally blocked landowners from being able to exercise their right to benefit from the resources under their land,” Ginter said, adding, “By addressing these issues, this bill removes barriers and delays, and in doing so, it maximizes potential economic opportunities, creates good-paying jobs and assists landowners who desire to exercise their right to develop the minerals underneath their land.”

Lawmakers in the House did edit language related to state-own lands to include protections for state parks and forests.

“HB 8 ... explicitly states ... that state parks may not be included in the unitization process and that there may be no surface disruption in state forests,” said Rep. Sean O’Brien of Bazetta, D-63rd. “This will help ensure that future generations of Ohioans will continue to be able to enjoy the incredible nature areas our state has to offer while also easing the extraction of valuable oil and gas resources from our local shale plays.”