225 ILCS 725/23.15 — Illinois Code / Chapter 225 / Act 725 / Section 23.15
Section 23.15
Status: in_force

(225 ILCS 725/23.15) (from Ch. 96 1/2, par. 5452) Sec. 23.15. (1) Property rights, leases, contracts and all other rights and obligations affecting oil and gas rights within the unit area shall be regarded as amended and modified to the extent necessary to conform to the provisions and requirements of this Act and to any valid and applicable plan of unitization or order of the Department made and adopted pursuant hereto, but otherwise remain in full force and effect, provided always that plans of unitization, including unit operating agreements, shall not provide, constitute or be construed as an exchange or transfer of real property or mineral interests in the respective separately owned tracts included within the unit. (2) Nothing contained in this Act shall be construed to require a transfer to or vesting in the unit of title to the separately owned tracts or leases within the unit area, other than the right to use and operate the same to the extent set out in the plan of unitization; nor shall the unit be regarded as owning the unit production. The unit production and the proceeds from the sale thereof shall be owned by the several persons to whom the same is allocated under the plan of unitization. All property, whether real or personal, which the unit may in any way acquire, hold or possess, shall not be acquired, held or possessed by the unit for its own account but shall be so acquired, held and possessed by the unit for the account of, and as agent for, the several working interest owners, and shall be the property of such working interest owners as their interests may appear under the plan of unitization, subject, however, to the right of the unit to the possession, management, use or disposal of the same in the proper conduct of its affairs, and subject to the lien the unit may have thereon to secure the payment of unit expense. (3) The amount of the unit production allocated to each separately owned tract within the unit, and only that amount, regardless of the well or wells in the unit area from which it may be produced, and regardless of whether it be more or less than the amount of production from the well or wells, if any, or any such separately owned tract, shall for all intents, uses and purposes be regarded and considered as production from such separately owned tract, and except as otherwise authorized in this Act, or in the plan of unitization approved by the Department, shall be distributed among or the proceeds thereof paid to the several persons entitled to share in the production from such separately owned tract in the same manner, in the same proportions, and upon the same conditions they would have participated and shared in the production or proceeds thereof from such separately owned tract had not said unit been organized, and with the same legal force and effect. If adequate provisions are made for the receipt thereof, the share of the unit production allocated to each separately owned tract shall be delivered in kind to the persons entitled thereto by virtue of ownership of oil and gas rights therein or by purchase from such owners subject to the rights of the unit operator to withhold and sell the same in payment of unit expense pursuant to the plan of unitization, and subject further to the call of the unit operator on such portions of the unit production for operating purposes as may be provided in the plan of unitization. (4) Operations conducted under and in accordance with the plan of unitization shall be regarded and considered a fulfillment of and compliance with all of the provisions, covenants and conditions, express or implied, of the several oil and gas leases upon lands included within the unit, or other contracts pertaining to the development thereof. Wells drilled or operated on any part of the unit, no matter where located, shall for all purposes be regarded as wells drilled on each separately owned tract within such unit. (5) Nothing herein or in any plan of unitization shall be construed as increasing or decreasing the implied covenants of a lease with respect to a pool or lands not included within the unit area. (Source: P.A. 85-1334.)