West Virginia Code
Article 6. Office of Oil and Gas; Oil and Gas Wells; Administration; Enforcement
§22-6-36. Declaration of Oil and Gas Notice by Owners and Lessees of Coal Seams

For purposes of notification under this article, any owner or lessee of coal seams shall file a declaration of the owner's or lessee's interest in such coal seams with the clerk of the county commission in the county where such coal seams are located. Said clerk shall file and index such declaration in accordance with section two, article one, chapter thirty-nine of this code, and shall index the name of the owner or lessee of such coal seams in the grantor index of the record maintained for the indexing of leases.
The declaration shall entitle such owner or lessee to the notices provided in sections twelve, thirteen, fourteen and twenty-three of this article: Provided, That the declaring owner shall be the record owner of the coal seam, and the declaring lessee shall be the record lessee with the owner's or lessee's source or sources of title recorded prior to recording such lessee's declaration.
The declaration shall be acknowledged by such owner or lessee, and in the case of a lessee, may be a part of the coal lease under which the lessee claims. Such declaration may be in the following language:
"DECLARATION OF OIL AND GAS NOTICE"
"The undersigned hereby declares:
(1) The undersigned is the ('owner' or 'lessee') of one or more coal seams or workable coal beds as those terms are defined in section one of this article.
(2) The coal seam(s) or workable coal bed(s) owned or leased partly or wholly by the undersigned lie(s) under the surface of lands described as follows:
(Here insert a description legally adequate for a deed, whether by metes and bounds or other locational description, or by title references such as a book and page legally sufficient to stand in lieu of a locational description.)
(3) The undersigned desires to be given all notices of oil and gas operations provided by sections twelve, thirteen, fourteen and twenty-three of this article, addressed as follows:
(Here insert the name and mailing address of the undersigned owner or lessee.)
_______________________________
(Signature)
(Here insert an acknowledgment legally adequate for a deed)."
The benefits of the foregoing declaration shall be personal to the declaring owner or lessee, and not transferable or assignable in any way.

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