Opinion ID: 1431799
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: commission order on appeal

Text: On August 31, 1983, Moran filed an application with the Corporation Commission requesting that it find that Moran did not elect to participate in the well drilled by GHK. The proceedings on this application resulted in Commission Order No. 299201, which Order is the subject of this appeal. In Order 299201 the Commission found that Moran's letter of October 5, 1981, and the returned Kirby A.F.E. showed that Moran made a voluntary pooling agreement with Kirby prior to the pooling order. The Commission concluded that by virtue of such an agreement the Commission had been without statutory authority to force pool Moran's interests, and that Moran was thus not force pooled by the order. The Commission thus concluded that the earlier force pooling order was a nullity by reason of the voluntary pooling agreement it now found to have been in existence. Kaneb Production Company had become the successor, by name change, to Moran Exploration, Inc. Kaneb appealed Order 299201 to this court, contending that it was an impermissible collateral attack on the pooling order, and that the Commission's finding of a voluntary pooling agreement between Moran and Kirby was not supported by substantial evidence.