57-901 Oil and gas conservation; purpose.
57-901. Oil and gas conservation; purpose.It is hereby declared to be in the public interest to foster, to encourage and to promote the development, production and utilization of natural resources of oil and gas in the state in such a manner as will prevent waste; to authorize and to provide for the operation and development of oil and gas properties in such a manner that the greatest ultimate recovery of oil and gas be had; and that the correlative rights of all owners be fully protected; and to encourage and to authorize cycling, recycling, pressure maintenance and secondary recovery operations in order that the greatest possible economic recovery of oil and gas be obtained within the state to the end that the landowners, the royalty owners, the producers and the general public realize and enjoy the greatest possible good from these vital irreplaceable natural resources.It is the intent and purpose of sections 57-901 to 57-921 to permit each and every oil and gas pool in Nebraska to be produced up to its maximum efficient rate of production, subject to the prohibition of waste as herein defined and subject further to the enforcement and protection of the correlative rights of the owners of a common source of oil or gas so that each common owner may obtain his just and equitable share of production therefrom. SourceLaws 1959, c. 262, § 1, p. 900. AnnotationsThis and succeeding sections contemplate determination of correlative rights of adjoining owners in a pool of oil or gas shall be determined on a fair, reasonable, and equitable basis. Farmers Irr. Dist. v. Schumacher, 187 Neb. 825, 194 N.W.2d 788 (1972).Lessee who refused to participate in a secondary recovery unit formed prior to compulsory unitization only entitled to recover for that which he would have produced by his own efforts without unitization. Baumgartner v. Gulf Oil Co., 184 Neb. 384, 168 N.W.2d 510 (1969).