W. Va. Code § 37B-1-2

This is the official text of W. Va. Code § 37B-1-2, part of West Virginia’s Va. Code — part of the compiled statutory law of West Virginia, published by the state as "Va. Code." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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§37B-1-2. Declaration of public policy; legislative findings.

Official statutory text

It is declared to be the public policy of this state and in the public interest to:

(1) Foster, encourage and promote exploration for and development, production, and conservation of oil, natural gas and their constituents;

(2) Prohibit waste of oil, natural gas, and their constituents and unnecessary surface loss of oil, natural gas, and their constituents;

(3) Encourage the maximum recovery of oil, natural gas, and their constituents;

(4) Safeguard, protect and enforce the correlative rights of operators and mineral owners in that each such operator and mineral owner may obtain his or her just and equitable share of production;

(5) Safeguard, protect and enforce the integrity of the passive royalty owner’s interest in his or her minerals.

(6) Safeguard, protect and enforce the rights of surface owners; and

(7) Protect and enforce the clear provisions of contracts lawfully made.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.