Liberty Petroleum Corp. v. Ndic

Summary

The Court affirmed approval of the Haystack Butte unitization plan, holding that pre-unitization drilling and operating costs attributable to the unit qualify as unit expense and that risk-penalty balances may be recovered from production allocated to the unit and affected tracts. It also held that the plan did not effect a physical or total regulatory taking because Liberty retained its working interests and received an economic benefit, although through a different allocation of production. The Court further concluded that the agency made the findings required for unitization and that substantial and credible evidence supported them.