2 - Overview of the History of Collective Action on Subsurface Resources

Summary

Henry L. Doherty was one of the primary proponents of unitization in the oil and gas industry the early 1900s. His goal was the prevention of waste, improvement in reservoir management, and serving the public interest in the conservation of a critical national resource. The key realization that unitization enabled was the treatment of a reservoir as a single mechanical unit, regardless of the division of its ownership. Cooperation between these ownership interests enabled joint operation of the common mechanical unit: the reservoir. This approach is similar to Elinor Ostrom’s approach, identified in her 1965 doctoral dissertation, and her work with common pool resources. In her work, she suggested that organizations formed to address groundwater issues in southern California resembled public entrepreneurs combining to form a more effective enterprise. As such, Doherty and Ostrom relied on similar foundations and theories but in different contexts.