2016 Colorado Revised Statutes
Title 34 - Mineral Resources
Oil and Natural Gas
Article 60 - Oil and Gas Conservation
§ 34-60-103. Definitions

As used in this article, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) "And" includes the word "or" and the use of the word "or" includes the word "and". The use of the plural includes the singular and the use of the singular includes the plural.

(2) "Commission" means the oil and gas conservation commission.

(3) "Common source of supply" is synonymous with "pool" as defined in this section.

(4) "Correlative rights" means that each owner and producer in a common pool or source of supply of oil and gas shall have an equal opportunity to obtain and produce his just and equitable share of the oil and gas underlying such pool or source of supply.

(4.3) "Division of parks and wildlife" means the division of parks and wildlife identified in article 9 of title 33, C.R.S.

(4.5) "Exploration and production waste" means those wastes that are generated during the drilling of and production from oil and gas wells or during primary field operations and that are exempt from regulation as hazardous wastes under subtitle c of the federal "Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976", 42 U.S.C. sec. 6901 to 6934, as amended.

(5) "Gas" means all natural gases and all hydrocarbons not defined in this section as oil.

(5.5) "Minimize adverse impacts" means to, wherever reasonably practicable:

(a) Avoid adverse impacts from oil and gas operations on wildlife resources;

(b) Minimize the extent and severity of those impacts that cannot be avoided;

(c) Mitigate the effects of unavoidable remaining impacts; and

(d) Take into consideration cost-effectiveness and technical feasibility with regard to actions and decisions taken to minimize adverse impacts to wildlife resources.

(6) "Oil" means crude petroleum oil and any other hydrocarbons, regardless of gravities, which are produced at the well in liquid form by ordinary production methods, and which are not the result of condensation of gas before or after it leaves the reservoir.

(6.5) "Oil and gas operations" means exploration for oil and gas, including the conduct of seismic operations and the drilling of test bores; the siting, drilling, deepening, recompletion, reworking, or abandonment of an oil and gas well, underground injection well, or gas storage well; production operations related to any such well including the installation of flow lines and gathering systems; the generation, transportation, storage, treatment, or disposal of exploration and production wastes; and any construction, site preparation, or reclamation activities associated with such operations.

(6.8) "Operator" means any person who exercises the right to control the conduct of oil and gas operations.

(7) "Owner" means the person who has the right to drill into and produce from a pool and to appropriate the oil or gas he produces therefrom either for himself or others or for himself and others, including the owner of a well capable of producing oil or gas, or both.

(7.1) "Parks and wildlife commission" means the parks and wildlife commission created in section 33-9-101, C.R.S.

(7.5) "Permit" means any permit, sundry notice, notice of intention, or other approval, including any conditions of approval, which is granted, issued, or approved by the commission.

(8) "Person" means any natural person, corporation, association, partnership, receiver, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary, or other representative of any kind, and includes any department, agency, or instrumentality of the state or any governmental subdivision thereof.

(9) "Pool" means an underground reservoir containing a common accumulation of oil or gas, or both. Each zone of a general structure, which zone is completely separated from any other zone in the structure, is covered by the word "pool" as used in this article.

(10) "Producer" means the owner of a well capable of producing oil or gas, or both.

(10.5) "Surface owner" means any person owning all or part of the surface of land upon which oil and gas operations are conducted, as shown by the tax records of the county in which the tract of land is situated, or any person with such rights under a recorded contract to purchase.

(10.7) "Underground natural gas storage cavern" means a facility that stored natural gas in an underground cavern or abandoned mine on or before January 1, 2000. An underground natural gas storage cavern includes all surface or subsurface rights and appurtenances associated with the underground injection, storage, and withdrawal of natural gas, but does not include any compressor stations or pipeline facilities subject to regulation by the public utilities commission or the United States department of transportation.

(11) "Waste", as applied to gas, includes the escape, blowing, or releasing, directly or indirectly into the open air, of gas from wells productive of gas only, or gas in an excessive or unreasonable amount from wells producing oil, or both oil and gas; and the production of gas in quantities or in such manner as unreasonably reduces reservoir pressure or unreasonably diminishes the quantity of oil or gas that ultimately may be produced; excepting gas that is reasonably necessary in the drilling, completing, testing, and in furnishing power for the production of wells.

(12) "Waste", as applied to oil, includes underground waste; inefficient, excessive, or improper use or dissipation of reservoir energy, including gas energy and water drive; surface waste; open-pit storage; and waste incident to the production of oil in excess of the producer's aboveground storage facilities and lease and contractual requirements, but excluding storage, other than open-pit storage, reasonably necessary for building up or maintaining crude stocks and products thereof for consumption, use, and sale.

(13) "Waste", in addition to the meanings as set forth in subsections (11) and (12) of this section, means:

(a) Physical waste, as that term is generally understood in the oil and gas industry;

(b) The locating, 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 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;

(c) Abuse of the correlative rights of any owner in a pool due to nonuniform, disproportionate, unratable, or excessive withdrawals of oil or gas therefrom, causing reasonably avoidable drainage between tracts of land or resulting in one or more producers or owners in such pool producing more than his equitable share of the oil or gas from such pool.

(14) Repealed.

(15) "Wildlife resources" means fish, wildlife, and their aquatic and terrestrial habitats.