Unitization agreements have several common components and principles that enable them to effectively govern collective resources. These agreements represent a governance system with several phases of development. Several key components work to separate the rights to extract from the right to a benefit, protecting private rights yet enabling collective governance. Private interests are protected as equity shares in the unitization agreement. A unit operator makes resource management decisions for the collectively held resource. As more information is gathered about resource conditions, private interests, represented as shares, are redetermined regularly to ensure accuracy and improve resource management over time. Thus, the methods of determining private shares in the unitization agreement are critical to the unit’s success.