PART II. OIL, GAS, AND WATER WELLS

SUBPART A. IN GENERAL

§4861. Definitions

For purposes of this Part:

(1) A "claimant" is a person who is owed an obligation secured by the privilege established by R.S. 9:4862.

(2) "Hydrocarbons" are oil and gas occurring naturally in the earth and any other valuable liquid or gaseous substance found and produced in association with them.

(3) A "well" is one that is intended to:

(a) Explore for or produce hydrocarbons.

(b) Inject or dispose of substances, whether useful or not, produced from a well that is intended to explore for or produce hydrocarbons.

(c) Inject hydrocarbons or other substances into the earth to enhance or facilitate the production of hydrocarbons.

(d) Produce water for use in the operations of a well that is intended to explore for or produce hydrocarbons.

(4)(a) "Operations" are every activity conducted by or for a lessee on a well site for the purpose of:

(i) Drilling, completing, testing, producing, reworking, or abandoning a well.

(ii) Saving, treating, or disposing of hydrocarbons or other substances produced from a well.

(iii) Injecting substances into the earth to produce or enhance the production of hydrocarbons.

(b) "Operations" do not include an activity conducted for the purpose of transporting, handling, processing, treating, or otherwise dealing with:

(i) Liquid hydrocarbons produced or separated at the well site after being removed from a leasehold tank and delivered into a truck, barge, pipeline, or other facility for transportation away from the well site.

(ii) Hydrocarbons produced in gaseous form, or produced in association with those produced in gaseous form and not separated at the well site, after being delivered into a pipeline for transportation away from the well site or delivered to a plant at the well site for processing or manufacturing.

(iii) Repealed by Acts 2018, No. 245, §1.

(5)(a) An "operating interest" is a mineral lease or sublease of a mineral lease, or an interest in a lease or sublease that gives the lessee, either singly or in association with others, the right to conduct the operations giving rise to the claimant's privilege.

(b) A mineral lease or sublease or an interest in the lease or sublease, is not an operating interest if an owner has divested himself of the right to conduct the operations giving rise to the claimant's privilege by assignment, sublease, or another form of mineral right before the claimant's privilege is established.

(c) A contract, such as one which commonly is referred to in the industry as a "farm-out" or "farm-in", by which a lessee agrees to sublease or transfer all or part of his rights in a lease to another person, commonly referred to as a "farmee", upon the drilling of a well or completion of some other operations, but which does not then vest such interest in the farmee, is not an operating interest until the sublease or transfer is made, and until then the farmee is a contractor of the lessee for the purposes of this Part.

(6) A "lessee" is a person who owns an operating interest.

(7) An "operator" is a lessee who is personally bound by contract to the claimant or to a contractor from whom the claimant's activities giving rise to the privilege emanate.

(8) A "participating lessee" is a lessee who is not the operator, but who is personally bound by contract to the operator to pay or reimburse the operator for any part of the obligation secured by the privilege or for any part of the price of the contract of the contractor from whom the operations giving rise to the claimant's privilege emanate.

(9) A "non-participating lessee" is a lessee who is neither an operator nor a participating lessee. A non-participating lessee does not become a participating lessee because an operator, contractor, or the claimant has the right to recover all or part of the obligation secured by the privilege out of hydrocarbons attributable to the interest of the lessee in the operating interest or from the lessee's share of the proceeds derived from such hydrocarbons, or out of other property of the lessee.

(10) A "contractor" is a person, other than a lessee, who contracts with an operator to perform the operations giving rise to the claimant's privilege or who, by subcontract with a contractor of the operator or through a series of subcontracts emanating from such a contractor, contracts to perform all or part of the operations contracted for by the operator.

(11) A "third person" is a person, including a lessee or operator, who is not contractually bound to the claimant for the obligation secured by a privilege or who has not expressly assumed the obligation.

(12) A "well site" is the area covered by:

(a) The operating interest.

(b) A unit in which the operating interest participates.

(c) A tract of land or the area covered by a servitude or predial lease of the lessee on which is located a well drilled to, producing from, or injecting substances into the area covered by the operating interest.

Acts 1984, No. 949, §1; Acts 1995, No. 962, §1; Acts 2018, No. 245, §1.