(a) No permit for a gas well covered by this act may be issued to drill a new gas well, or reopen a gas well which has been plugged in accordance with the Oil and Gas Act,¹ unless the proposed gas well is located not less than 1,000 feet from any other well. For the purpose of this section, “other well” shall not include any:

(b) The department shall, upon request of the permit applicant or the owner of the workable coal seam which underlies the proposed gas well, grant an exception from the minimum 1,000 feet distance requirement of subsection (a), where the permit applicant and the owner of the workable coal seam consent in writing.

(c) The department shall, upon the request of the permit applicant or the owner of the workable coal seam which underlies the proposed gas well, grant an exception to the requirements of subsection (a), where the vertical distance between the producing formation of the proposed gas well and the producing formation of any other well is 1,000 feet or greater, where the permit applicant and the owner of the workable coal seam consent in writing.

(d) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section, no permit for a gas well covered by this act which is intended to be part of a well cluster shall be issued unless the well cluster is located not less than 2,000 feet from the nearest well cluster as measured from the center of the well bore of the nearest well, unless the permit applicant and the owner of the workable coal seam consent in writing to spacing the well clusters closer than 2,000 feet. The well location limitations imposed in subsection (a) shall not be applicable between and among wells located within the same well cluster.

(e) The Environmental Quality Board may promulgate regulations modifying the maximum area of a well cluster based upon the study required under section 12.1.² In the event the permit applicant and the owner of the workable coal seam cannot agree on the spacing of well clusters, either party may invoke the procedures of section 12(c), (d), (e) and (f)³ in order to reach an agreement. When a well cluster will penetrate a workable coal seam which is not part of an active mine, the applicant for the gas well shall provide the owner of the coal seam with a copy of the plat, and the owner of the coal seam shall have 15 days from receipt of the plat to provide recommendations to the applicant for the gas well on the location of the well cluster.

(f) For purposes of this section, a “well cluster” shall mean an area within a well pad intended to host multiple horizontal wells and which comprises an area no greater than 5,000 square feet.