Quick answer — How do I compare the options in an Oklahoma pooling order?
Result: Option 1: $5,000.00 bonus, unit decimal 0.00195313. Option 2: $3,500.00 bonus, unit decimal 0.00292969. Last day with weekends applied: Monday, November 23, 2026 (day 20 is Sunday, November 22).
An illustration with round numbers, not taken from any order. The royalty decimal follows the unit-interest definition in 52 O.S. § 87.1(e); the deadline follows OAC 165:5-1-6(a), which omits the order date and moves a weekend last day to the next business day.
Source: 52 O.S. § 87.1(e) — pooling orders; unleased owners; royalty owner’s interest in the unit — Oklahoma State Courts Network (OSCN)
When the owners in a spacing unit have not agreed to pool their interests and someone has drilled or proposes to drill a well, the Corporation Commission, on application and after a hearing, requires the owners to pool and develop the unit as a unit (52 O.S. § 87.1(e)). The Commission sets the options for participation when owners cannot agree (OCC royalty-owner booklet).
Until you elect, or are deemed to elect, not to participate, the statute treats an unleased owner as a lessee for a seven-eighths (7/8) interest and a lessor for the remaining one-eighth (1/8). Once you elect not to participate, you are a lessor to the extent of the full royalty percentage elected under the order (52 O.S. § 87.1(e)).
A pooling order must give respondents at least 20 days from the date of the order to communicate an election, unless the Commission directs otherwise. As the pooling order provides, an election is timely if it is mailed with a U.S. Postal Service postmark on or before the last day allowed in the order, or delivered in time as the order otherwise provides; it goes to the person the order designates (OAC 165:5-15-3(d)). Check which methods your order allows.
In counting the period, the day of the order is omitted and the last day is included; if the last day falls on a Saturday, Sunday, legal holiday or official agency closing, the period runs to the next day that is none of those (OAC 165:5-1-6(a)). The calculator moves a weekend last day for you. It does not know holidays or closings, so check the date against the Commission’s calendar.
You may generally still lease your interest until the 20-day election period in the order has run (OCC royalty-owner booklet).
The order provides that a party who fails to elect in time is deemed to have made a particular election, normally a specific cash bonus and royalty. If you elect to participate but do not pay your share of the estimated costs or make financial arrangements in time, the order usually voids that election and deems you to have taken a specific bonus and royalty (OCC royalty-owner booklet).
If you elect a cash bonus and royalty, the order states how many days the company has to pay the bonus, and the bonus must be paid even if the well is never drilled or is a dry hole (OCC royalty-owner booklet). The order terminates if drilling operations do not begin within the time it designates, except as to the payment of cash bonuses (OAC 165:5-15-3(a)).
If you elect to participate, the order gives you a set number of days to pay your share of the estimated drilling costs or make satisfactory arrangements (OCC royalty-owner booklet). Costs the order charges are limited to actual, reasonable expenditures, and the operator has a lien on a participating owner’s interest and share of production for costs charged to it (52 O.S. § 87.1(e)).
Bonus, royalty and other payments to owners who are unknown or cannot be located are paid into an escrow account within 90 days after the order (OAC 165:5-15-3(e)).
At least 20 days from the date of the order, unless the Commission directs otherwise (OAC 165:5-15-3(d)). Your order states the exact period. The order date is not counted, and a last day on a weekend, legal holiday or Commission closing moves to the next business day (OAC 165:5-1-6(a)).
Yes, if the order provides for it: an election is timely when mailed with a U.S. Postal Service postmark on or before the last day allowed in the order, or delivered in time as the order otherwise provides (OAC 165:5-15-3(d)).
The order deems you to have made a particular election, normally a specific cash bonus and royalty (OCC royalty-owner booklet). Enter that option as the default to see its numbers.
Multiply the royalty you elected by your net mineral acres divided by the unit acres. That is how 52 O.S. § 87.1(e) defines a royalty owner’s interest in the unit. For a multiunit horizontal well, the decimal on that well is your unit decimal times the allocation factor for your unit: the length of the completion interval in your unit divided by the whole completion interval, unless the Commission adjusts it (52 O.S. § 87.8(B)(1)).
Yes. According to the Corporation Commission, a cash bonus must be paid to those who elect it even if the well is never drilled or is a dry hole, and an unpaid bonus is a debt collected in district court (OCC royalty-owner booklet).
No. It shows each option’s bonus, royalty decimal and cost share from the numbers in your order, and makes no forecast of production, revenue or value. Read your order and consult an Oklahoma oil and gas attorney before you elect.
Each source was read on the publisher’s site on 2026-11-02.
Software and AI assistants can run the same computation with GET /api/v1/tools/oklahoma-pooling-election (documented in the OpenAPI spec) or through the MCP tool oklahoma_pooling_elections at /mcp.
Educational arithmetic from the numbers in your pooling order; not legal advice and not a forecast of production, revenue or value. Your order controls its options, deadline and deemed election. Read your order and consult an Oklahoma oil and gas attorney before you elect.
