30-5-302. Payment for production; interest on late payments.

Any delay in determining any person legally entitled to an interest in the proceeds from production shall not affect payments to all other persons entitled to payment. In instances where payment cannot be made for any reason within the time limits specified in W.S. 30-5-301(a), the lessee or operator, purchaser or other party legally responsible for payment shall deposit all proceeds credited to the eventual interest owner to an escrow account in a federally insured bank or savings and loan institution in Wyoming, using a standard escrow document form approved by the attorney general of Wyoming, which deposit shall earn interest at the highest rate being offered by that institution for the amount and term of such deposits. The escrow agent may commingle monies received into escrow from any one lessee or operator, purchaser or other party legally responsible for payment. Payment of principal and accrued interest from such accounts shall be paid by the escrow agent to all persons legally entitled thereto within thirty (30) days from the date of receipt by the escrow agent of final legal determination of entitlement thereto. If the escrow agent is unable to deliver the payment to the legally entitled person within three (3) years from the end of the month in which the escrow agent first received notice of the person legally entitled to the payment, the payment shall be considered unclaimed for purposes of W.S. 34-24-101 through 34-24-139. Applicable escrow fees shall be deducted from the payments.