As used in the Natural Gas Processors Tax Act:

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

B. "department" means the taxation and revenue department, the secretary of taxation and revenue or any employee of the department exercising authority lawfully delegated to that employee by the secretary;

C. "fiscal year" means the period starting July 1 and ending June 30 of the succeeding calendar year;

D. "mcf" means one thousand cubic feet;

E. "mmbtu" means one million British thermal units;

F. "natural gas" means any hydrocarbon that at atmospheric conditions of temperature and pressure is in a gaseous state, and includes non-hydrocarbon gases that are in combination with hydrocarbon gases;

G. "natural gas processing plant" means a facility used to extract liquid hydrocarbons and non-hydrocarbon gaseous or liquid substances, individually or in any combination, from natural gas, but does not include a facility that refines or processes oil, natural gas or liquid hydrocarbons or that extracts substances from natural gas through a field or lease operation;

H. "person" means any individual, estate, trust, receiver, business trust, corporation, firm, copartnership, cooperative, joint venture, association or other group or combination acting as a unit;

I. "processor" means a person who operates a natural gas processing plant; and

J. "tax" means the natural gas processors tax.

History: 1953 Comp., § 72-23-2, enacted by Laws 1963, ch. 179, § 2; 1970, ch. 13, § 3; 1977, ch. 249, § 57; 1986, ch. 20, § 102; 1998, ch. 102, § 1.

The 1998 amendment, effective January 1, 1999, rewrote the section to the extent that a detailed comparison is impracticable.

Removal of carbon dioxide was not a field or lease operation. — Where taxpayer, which was a producer of coal seam gas, had carbon dioxide removed from the gas at a processing plant to make the gas marketable or acceptable to interstate pipelines, the taxpayer was subject to the natural gas processors tax, because the removal of carbon dioxide constituted a processing operation that was not exempt as a field or lease operation. Amoco Production Co. v. N.M. Taxation and Revenue Dep't, 2003-NMCA-092, 134 N.M. 162, 74 P.3d 96.

State courts may determine if additional tax was imposed increasing gas price. — Whether an additional tax was imposed on gas company's sale of natural gas to other company so as to provide contractual basis for increased price is within state courts' jurisdiction. Pan Am. Petroleum Corp. v. El Paso Natural Gas Co., 1970-NMSC-156, 82 N.M. 193, 477 P.2d 827.