Any city, county, city and county, or district, in the interest of increasing the ultimate recovery of oil or gas, or of the protection of oil or gas from unreasonable waste, or of the possible arresting or amelioration of land subsidence, may enter into unit or co-operative agreements with respect to all or any part or parts of land owned, possessed, controlled, held in trust by, or otherwise under the jurisdiction of, such city, county, city and county or district, for the purpose of bringing about the co-operative development and operation of all or a part or parts of the oil and gas field in which such lands are located, or for the purpose of bringing about the development or operation of all or a part or parts of such field as a unit, or for the purpose of fixing the time, location, and manner of drilling and operating of wells for the production of oil or gas, or providing for the return or injection of gas, water or other substances into the subsurface of the earth for the purpose of storage or the repressuring of such oil or gas field. If any such unit or co-operative agreement includes tide and submerged lands which have been granted to a city, county, or city and county by a grant which does not reserve to the State the right to produce oil and gas therefrom, then the agreement shall comply with the requirements of Section 6879 of this code, and shall bind the State only if approved by the State Lands Commission pursuant to the provisions of Section 6879. Subject to the foregoing, and notwithstanding any competitive bidding requirements or restrictions on term contained in this chapter, or any other statute, including but not limited to Section 718 of the Civil Code, Sections 37383 and 37384 of the Government Code and Chapter 29 of the 1956 Statutes, First Extraordinary Session, any such city, county, city and county, or district may negotiate and execute all agreements necessary to effectuate, implement or modify any such unit or co-operative agreement, including the power to bind and commit lands, including tide and submerged lands, or any interest in lands, to the co-operative or unit agreement for the full term thereof, irrespective of whether the term thereof is for a period extending over the life of the field or for any other indefinite period, and irrespective of the termination date of any lease, contract or other agreement then in effect as to such lands. The power of any such city, county, city and county, or district to enter into unit or co-operative agreements shall include the power to do such other acts or things and to incur such other commitments and obligations as are customary in unit or co-operative agreements.

This section shall apply to any city, county, city and county, or district, irrespective of whether they are authorized by this chapter or any other statute to lease or develop lands for the production of oil, gas, and other hydrocarbon substances.

(Added by Stats. 1958, 1st Ex. Sess., Ch. 36.)