2016 Idaho Statutes
Title 47 - MINES AND MINING
Chapter 3 - OIL AND GAS WELLS -- GEOLOGIC INFORMATION, AND PREVENTION OF WASTE
Section 47-318 - DEFINITIONS.

47-318. Definitions. Unless the context otherwise requires, the terms defined in this section shall have the following meaning when used in this act:

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

(b) "Condensate" means the liquid produced by the condensation of a vapor or gas either after it leaves the reservoir or while still in the reservoir.

(c) "Correlative rights" means the opportunity of each owner in a pool to produce his just and equitable share of oil and gas in a pool without waste.

(d) "Department" means the Idaho department of lands.

(e) "Field" means the general area underlaid by one (1) or more pools.

(f) "Gas" means any petroleum hydrocarbon existing in the gaseous phase, including condensate because it originally existed in the gaseous phase.

(g) "Market value" means the price at the time of sale, in cash or on terms reasonably equivalent to cash, for which the oil or gas should bring in a competitive and open market under all conditions requisite to a fair sale, the buyer and seller each acting prudently and knowledgeably, and assuming the price is not affected by undue stimulus from either party. The costs of marketing, transporting and processing oil and gas produced shall be borne entirely by the producer, and such cost shall not reduce the producer's tax directly or indirectly.

(h) "Mineral interest" means the right to explore, drill or produce oil or gas lying beneath the surface of property.

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

(j) "Oil and gas" means oil or gas or both.

(k) "Operator" means any duly authorized person who is in charge of the development of a lease, pool, or spacing or unitized area, or the operation of a producing well.

(l) "Owner" means the person who has the right to drill into and produce from a pool and to appropriate the oil or gas that he produces therefrom, either for himself or for himself and others.

(m) "Person" means any natural person, corporation, association, partnership, receiver, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary or other representatives of any kind, and includes any government or any political subdivision of any agency thereof. The masculine gender, in referring to a person, includes the feminine and the neuter genders.

(n) "Pool" means an underground reservoir containing a common accumulation of oil or gas or both; each zone of a structure that is completely separated from any other zone in the same structure is a pool.

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

(p) "Reservoir" means a subsurface volume of porous and permeable rock in which oil or gas has accumulated.

(q) "Uncommitted owner" means one who is not leased or otherwise contractually obligated to the operator.

(r) "Waste" as applied to gas shall include 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 will unreasonably reduce reservoir pressure or unreasonably diminish the quantity of oil or gas that might ultimately be produced; excepting gas that is reasonably necessary in the drilling, completing and testing of wells and in furnishing power for the production of wells.

(s) "Waste" as applied to oil means and 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 above-ground storage facilities and lease and contractual requirements, but excluding storage (other than open-pit storage) reasonably necessary for building up and maintaining crude stocks and products thereof for consumption, use and sale; the locating, drilling, equipping, operating or producing of any well in a manner that causes, or tends to cause, reduction of the quantity of oil or gas ultimately recoverable from a pool under prudent and proper operations.

(t) The use of the plural includes the singular, and the use of the singular includes the plural.

History:

[47-318, added 1963, ch. 148, sec. 4, p. 433; am. 2012, ch. 73, sec. 1, p. 209; am. 2015, ch. 89, sec. 1, p. 223; am. 2016, ch. 48, sec. 2, p. 131.]