(a) If an operator or owner makes or has made reasonable efforts to negotiate with all royalty owners in an oil or natural gas mineral property and royalty owners vested with at least three fourths of the right to develop, operate, and produce oil, natural gas, or their constituents consent to the lawful use or development of the oil or natural gas mineral property, the operators or owners use or development of the oil or natural gas mineral property is permissible, is not waste, and is not trespass. In that case, the consenting cotenants and their lessees, operators, agents, contractors, or assigns are not liable for damages for waste or trespass due to the lawful use or development and shall pay the nonconsenting cotenants in accordance with subsections (b), (c), and (e) of this section, reserve the amounts specified in subsection (d) and (e) of this section for the benefit of unknown or unlocatable interest owners, and report and remit the reserved interests as provided in subsection (d) of this section.
(b) A nonconsenting cotenant is entitled to receive, based on his or her election, either:
(1) A pro rata share of production royalty, paid on the gross proceeds received at the first point of sale to an unaffiliated third-party purchaser and free of post-production expenses, equal to the highest royalty percentage paid to his or her consenting cotenants in the same mineral property, under a bona fide, arms-length lease transaction and lease bonus and delay rental payments or other non-royalty mineral payments, calculated on a weighted-average net mineral acre basis; or