Serious question about drilling rights

[Timfoilhat]

What prevents a state like Texas from drilling for oil or natural gas and selling it within their own borders?

 

[Scsmith42]

Nothing on State-owned land. As a matter of fact, oil and gas royalties paid to the state are a major source of funding for state colleges.

As far as non state owned land is concerned, it depends upon who owns the mineral rights. In some instances they are under separate ownership from the land owner.

 

[Timfoilhat]

Thursday Joe Manchin was waxing poetic about how West Virginia has an ocean of NG under it. If the communists won't allow for a pipeline to distribute it, is there a way to bypass them by keeping it local for the individual state's use?
I'm guessing that getting the finished product means building a refinery right next to the well, so logistics are probably rough, but somewhere there's got to be a place where it could happen.

 

[LeeMajors]

Natural gas don't need a refinery. Just a compression pump and some way to remove moisture. So no really no reason not u use it locally.

I know of many in KS OK TX NE that have wells on the farms to run their household and farms.

 

[Windini]

Natural gas don't need a refinery.

I seem to remember that the by-products of gas mining (the goodies in the condensate) contain the source materials for plastics; so, though a refinery is not needed to utilize the gas, having one to separate out those by-products is a good source of revenue. ?? Maybe I'm confusing gas vs. oil - it's been awhile.

 

[MacEntyre]

Thar's a bunch o' natgas pipelines already in an out of WV...

 

[noway2]

I know of many in KS OK TX NE that have wells on the farms to run their household and farms.

I had an uncle who did that in OH. The gas company put the well in and paid royalties on the gas as well as proving him with a line to use all he wanted. There was a manifold where he could switch between his gas and the utility (metered / billed) which was fortunate because the well dried up fairly quickly, which makes me question if you own X acres and your neighbor owns Y and both of you have wells, how do you know that you’re not getting the gas someone else has the official rights to.

 

[GymB]

I can‘t imagine that the issue is one of pipeline access or capacity.

Drilling and extraction also requires some permitting.

Gas is so cheap today that unless he just wants to use it to drive down electric rates in the state to attract business, the TX model, I don’t know what he’s thinking.