As used in the Natural Gas and Crude Oil Production Incentive Act:

A. "average annual taxable value" means the average of the taxable value per barrel, determined pursuant to Section 7-31-5 NMSA 1978, of all oil produced in New Mexico for the specified calendar year as determined by the department;

B. "average daily production" means, for any crude oil or natural gas property assigned a single production number by the department, the number derived by dividing the total volume of crude oil or natural gas production from the property reported to the division during a calendar year by the sum of the number of days each eligible well within the property produced or injected during that calendar year;

C. "department" means the taxation and revenue department;

D. "division" means the oil conservation division of the energy, minerals and natural resources department;

E. "eligible well" means a crude oil or natural gas well that produces or an injection well that injects and is integral to production for any period of time during the preceding calendar year;

F. "natural gas" means any combustible vapor composed chiefly of hydrocarbons occurring naturally;

G. "operator" means the person responsible for the actual physical operation of a natural gas or oil well;

H. "person" means any individual or other legal entity, including any group or combination of individuals or other legal entities acting as a unit;

I. "production restoration incentive tax exemption" means the tax exemption set forth in Subsection B of Section 7-29-4 NMSA 1978 for natural gas or oil produced from a production restoration project;

J. "production restoration project" means the use of any process for returning to production a natural gas or oil well that had thirty days or less of production in any period of twenty-four consecutive months beginning on or after January 1, 1993 as approved and certified by the division;

K. "severance" means the taking from the soil of any product in any manner whatsoever;

L. "stripper well property" means a crude oil or natural gas producing property that is assigned a single production unit number by the department and:

(1) if a crude oil producing property, produced an average daily production of less than ten barrels of oil per eligible well per day for the preceding calendar year;

(2) if a natural gas producing property, produced an average daily production of less than sixty thousand cubic feet of natural gas per eligible well per day during the preceding calendar year; or

(3) if a property with wells that produce both crude oil and natural gas, produced an average daily production of less than ten barrels of oil per eligible well per day for the preceding calendar year, as determined by converting the volume of natural gas produced by the well to barrels of oil by using a ratio of six thousand cubic feet to one barrel of oil;

M. "stripper well incentive tax rates" means the tax rates set forth in Paragraphs (6) through (9) of Subsection A of Section 7-29-4 NMSA 1978 and in Paragraphs (4) through (7) of Subsection A of Section 7-31-4 NMSA 1978 for natural gas or oil produced from a well within a stripper well property;

N. "well workover incentive tax rate" means the tax rate set forth in Paragraphs (4) and (5) of Subsection A of Section 7-29-4 NMSA 1978 on the natural gas or oil produced from a well workover project; and

O. "well workover project" means any procedure undertaken by the operator of a natural gas or oil well that is intended to increase the production from the well and that has been approved and certified by the division.

History: Laws 1995, ch. 15, § 2; 1999, ch. 7, § 2; 1999, ch. 256, § 3.

The 1999 amendment, effective June 18, 1999, added Subsections A, B, E, L, and M, and redesignated the remaining subsections accordingly; deleted former Subsection F, which read: "'production projection' means the estimate of the productive capacity of a natural gas or oil well that is certified by the division pursuant to the provisions of the Natural Gas and Crude Oil Production Incentive Act as the future rate of production from the well prior to the operator of the well performing a well workover project on the well"; and deleted "in excess of the production projection" following "produced" in Subsection N.

This section was also amended by Laws 1999, ch. 7, § 2, effective June 18, 1999, which would have substituted "in any period of twenty-four consecutive months beginning on or after January 1, 1993" for "between January 1, 1993 and December 31, 1994" in Subsection H. The section was set out as amended by Laws 1999, ch. 256, § 3. See 12-1-8 NMSA 1978.