(A) No permit shall authorize the drilling of more than one well or more than one water and/or gas re-pressurizing or injection facility.
(B) No permit shall be issued for the drilling or re-drilling of any well with a wellbore to be located within 300 feet of any residential, commercial or public building or structure (except as otherwise provided herein) without the prior written consent of the property owner or governing body on form approved by the city.
(C) No permit shall be issued for the drilling of a well with a wellbore to be located within 500 feet of the property line of any parochial or public schools, hospitals, convalescent homes, orphanages or nursing homes located within the city limits. without the prior written consent of the property owner or governing body on form approved by the city. The property owner or party granting the waiver shall hold the city harmless from any and all liability arising out of the granting of the waiver.
(D) As to all wells and water and/or re-pressurizing or injection facilities, and other facilities as may be covered by this chapter existing which have not been abandoned nor previously permitted within the corporate limits of the city on the effective date of this chapter or which are in existence and have not been abandoned at the time the land, upon which the same are situated is annexed to the city, no additional permit or filing fee shall be required, unless thereafter abandoned and thereafter re-entered as herein provided. It is hereby expressly provided that as to all wells so drilled and completed prior to the effective date of this chapter, this chapter shall apply as to all provisions hereof concerning actions to be taken subsequent to the effective date of this chapter. The operator and/or permittee of any well drilled prior to the effective date of this chapter shall within 30 days from the effective date of this chapter, file unless presently on file, the following with the City Manager:
(1) A map or plat of the drill site as required herein; and
(2) Copies of public liability and property damage policies as required herein.
(E) (1) If the existing drilling unit held by permittee consists of a mineral interest of which permittee does not own or hold oil and gas leases or drilling contracts, then the drilling unit as established, and any permit existing within the drilling unit shall continue in full force and effect, so long as the permittee, its successors and assigns, shall deliver and agree to deliver to the credit of each owner whose mineral interest in the land shall not be under any oil and gas lease, free of costs, in the pipeline to which the well may be connected, that proportionate part of one-fifth or more of all oil produced and saved from the well arrived at by dividing the square feet of an unleased mineral interest so owned by the total square feet contained in the drilling unit, and likewise a like proportion of the proceeds of gas and casinghead gas produced from the well and used or sold off the premises.
(2) As to an existing drilling unit, any applicant for a permit to drill on a drill site within an existing drilling unit, not abandoned, and made by one or more applicants, which drill site shall consist of all or a part of the same surface area, the application shall be granted, if otherwise sufficient herein, to the applicant owning or holding the greater area of land in the drilling unit in fee, or by lease or other contract with the property owner, permitting the drilling thereon for oil or gas; but should a permit be issued to a permittee who does not own or hold leases or other valid drilling contracts in writing from owners of all land within the unit, any owner of unleased land in the drilling unit and any person, or corporation other than permittee, holding oil and gas leases on land in the drilling unit shall have the right to share in the ownership and benefits of the oil or gas well in the proportion that the area of his or her or its land or lease bears to the total area of the drilling unit; provided that, within ten days from the date of the issuance of the permit, he, she or it shall file with the City Manager his, her or its election in writing to pay to the permittee, or his, her or its assigns, a like proportion of the total cost and expense of drilling and operating the well, and shall within that time make and file with the City Manager a certified check or a bond with an authorized surety company as surety, an amount representing that portion of the estimated maximum cost of the well that the area of the land owned or held under lease by the principal bears to the whole area of the drilling unit, conditioned that the principal in the bond will pay to the permittee and his or her assigns the proportions of the cost of drilling and operating the well, from time to time, as required in the drilling and operating the well, from time to time, as required in the drilling and operating thereof, any bond or check to be approved by the Mayor and held by the City Secretary for the benefit of all persons interested.
(3) Any application filed for a permit within an existing drilling unit where one or more drilling permits have been issued, notice of the hearing held for issuance of the permit shall be served upon each permittee having an outstanding or issued permit within the drilling unit by certified mail, return receipt requested, verified and mailed out by the city, at the applicant’s expense, at least seven business days prior to the hearing date of the application, with return as to service executed or made on or before the day of the hearing. If, upon hearing of the application, the previous permits do not hold valid oil and gas leases or drilling contracts upon the property of applicant, and that they have refused and still refuse to share in the benefits occurring to them from the oil and gas production from the drilling unit including the property in proportion of the ownership of the present applicant, then the application, if it meets the requirements of this chapter in all other respects, shall be granted; otherwise, it shall be refused.
(Ord. passed 6-20-1989; Ord. passed 9-19-1989; Ord. passed 3-20-1990)