Effective 28 Aug 2015

259.050. Definitions. — Unless the context otherwise requires, the following words mean:

(1) "Certificate of clearance" means a permit prescribed by the council for the transportation or the delivery of oil or gas or product and issued or registered in accordance with the rule, regulation, or order requiring such permit;

(2) "Council", the state oil and gas council established by section 259.010;

(3) "Department", the department of natural resources;

(4) "Field", the general area underlaid by one or more pools;

(5) "Gas", all natural gas and all other fluid hydrocarbons which are produced at the wellhead and not hereinbelow defined as oil;

(6) "Illegal gas" means gas which has been produced from any well within this state in excess of the quantity permitted by any rule, regulation, or order of the council;

(7) "Illegal oil" means oil which has been produced from any well within the state in excess of the quantity permitted by any rule, regulation, or order of the council;

(8) "Illegal product" means any product derived in whole or in part from illegal oil or illegal gas;

(9) "Noncommercial gas well", a gas well drilled for the sole purpose of furnishing gas for private domestic consumption by the owner and not for resale or trade;

(10) "Oil", crude petroleum oil and other hydrocarbons regardless of gravity which are produced at the wellhead in liquid form and the liquid hydrocarbons known as distillate or condensate recovered or extracted from gas, other than gas produced in association with oil and commonly known as casinghead gas. The term shall also include hydrocarbons that do not flow to a wellhead but are produced by other means, including those contained in oil-shale and oil-sand;

(11) "Owner", the person who has the right to drill into and produce from a pool and to appropriate the oil or gas he produced therefrom either for himself or others or for himself and others;

(12) "Pool", an underground reservoir containing a common accumulation of oil or gas or both; each zone of a structure which is completely separated from any other zone in the same structure is a pool, as that term is used in this chapter;

(13) "Product", any commodity made from oil or gas and includes refined crude oil, crude tops, topped crude, processed crude, processed crude petroleum, residue from crude petroleum, cracking stock, uncracked fuel oil, fuel oil, treated crude oil, residuum, gas oil, casinghead gasoline, natural-gas gasoline, kerosene, benzene, wash oil, waste oil, blended gasoline, lubricating oil, blends or mixtures of oil with one or more liquid products or by-products derived from oil or gas, and blends or mixtures of two or more liquid products or by-products derived from oil or gas whether herein enumerated or not;

(14) "Reasonable market demand" means the demand for oil or gas for reasonable current requirements for consumption and use within and without the state, together with such quantities as are reasonably necessary for building up or maintaining reasonable working stocks and reasonable reserves of oil or gas or product;

(15) "Waste" means and includes:

(a) Physical waste, as that term is generally understood in the oil and gas industry, but not including unavoidable or accidental waste;

(b) The inefficient, excessive, or improper use of, or the unnecessary dissipation of, reservoir energy;

(c) The location, spacing, drilling, equipping, operating, or producing of any oil or gas well or wells in a manner which causes, or tends to cause, reduction in the quantity of oil or gas ultimately recoverable from a pool under prudent and proper operations, or which causes or tends to cause unnecessary or excessive surface loss or destruction of oil or gas;

(d) The inefficient storing of oil;

(e) The production of oil or gas in excess of transportation or marketing facilities or in excess of reasonable market demand; and

(f) Through negligence, the unnecessary or excessive surface loss or destruction of oil or gas resulting from evaporation, seepage, leakage or deliberate combustion;

(16) "Well", any hole drilled in the earth for or in connection with the exploration, discovery, or recovery of oil or gas, or for or in connection with the underground storage of gas in natural formation, or for or in connection with the disposal of salt water, nonusable gas or other waste accompanying the production of oil or gas.

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(L. 1965 2d Ex. Sess. p. 917 § 5, A.L. 1972 H.B. 1176, A.L. 1987 S.B. 353, A.L. 2015 H.B. 92)