Any natural gas company desiring to exercise the right of eminent domain as to any land for underground storage of natural gas shall, as a conditional [condition] precedent to the filing of its petition in the district court, obtain from the division a decision finding:

A. that the underground stratum or formation sought to be acquired is suitable for the underground storage of natural gas;

B. that the underground stratum or formation sought to be acquired is incapable of producing oil in paying quantities through any known recovery method;

C. that the formation or stratum sought to be acquired is not underlying lands which contain known commercial deposits of potash;

D. that injury will not be caused to surface or underground water resources;

E. that the underground stratum or formation sought to be acquired, if it contained native gas capable of production in paying quantities, is substantially depleted of recoverable native gas, and that such formation or stratum has a greater value or utility as a gas storage reservoir than for the production of the remaining volumes of native gas therein;

F. the extent of the horizontal limits of the reservoir expected to be penetrated by displaced or injected gas; and

G. that no portion of the formation or stratum sought to be acquired has been appropriated or is being utilized for the injection, storage and withdrawal of natural gas by others.

History: 1953 Comp., § 65-9-5, enacted by Laws 1963, ch. 139, § 5; 1977, ch. 255, § 70.

Bracketed material. — The bracketed material was inserted by the compiler and is not part of the law.