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353.510 Definitions for KRS 353.500 to 353.720.
As used in KRS 353.500 to 353.720, unless the context otherwise requires:
(1) "Department" means the Department for Natural Resources;
(2) "Commissioner" means the commissioner of the Department for Natural
Resources;
(3) "Director" means the director of the Division of Oil and Gas as provided in KRS
353.530;
(4) "Commission" means the Kentucky Oil and Gas Conservation Commission as
provided in KRS 353.565;
(5) "Person" means any natural person, corporation, association, partnership,
receiver, governmental agency subject to KRS 353.500 to 353.720, trustee,
so-called common-law or statutory trust, guardian, executor, administrator, or
fiduciary of any kind, federal agency, state agency, city, commission, political
subdivision of the Commonwealth, or any interstate body;
(6) "Correlative rights" means the reasonable opportunity of each person entitled
thereto to recover and receive without waste the oil and gas in and under his
tract or tracts, or the equivalent thereof;
(7) "Oil" means natural crude oil or petroleum and other hydrocarbons, regardless
of gravity, which are produced at the well in liquid form by ordinary production
methods and which are not the result of condensation of gas after it leaves the
underground reservoir;
(8) "Gas" means all natural gas, including casinghead gas, and all other
hydrocarbons not defined in subsection (7) of this section as oil;
(9) "Pool" means an underground reservoir containing a common accumulation of
oil or gas or both. Each productive zone of a general structure which is
completely separated from any other zone in the structure, or which for the
purpose of KRS 353.500 to 353.720 may be so declared by the department, is
covered by the word "pool" as used herein;
(10) "Field" means the general area which is underlaid or appears to be underlaid
by at least one (1) pool; and "field" includes the underground reservoir
containing oil or gas or both. The words "field" and "pool" mean the same thing
when only one (1) underground reservoir is involved; however, "field," unlike
"pool," may relate to two (2) or more pools;
(11) "Just and equitable share of production" means, as to each person, an amount
of oil or gas or both substantially equal to the amount of recoverable oil and
gas in that part of a pool underlying his tract or tracts;
(12) "Abandoned," when used in connection with a well or hole, means a well or
hole which has never been used, or which, in the opinion of the department,
will no longer be used for the production of oil or gas or for the injection or
disposal of fluid therein;
(13) "Workable bed" means:
(a) A coal bed actually being operated commercially;
(b) A coal bed that the department decides can be operated commercially
and the operation of which can reasonably be expected to commence
within not more than ten (10) years; or
(c)
(14)
(15)
(16)
(17)
(18)
(19)
(20)
(21)
(22)
A coal bed which, from outcrop indications or other definite evidence,
proves to the satisfaction of the commissioner to be workable, and which,
when operated, will require protection if wells are drilled through it;
"Well" means a borehole drilled, shaft driven, or hole dug or such proposed or
otherwise used for the purpose of producing natural gas or petroleum, or one
through which natural gas or petroleum is being produced, or for the purpose of
injecting any water, gas, or other fluid therein or one into which any water, gas,
or other fluid is being injected;
"Shallow well" means any well drilled and completed at a depth less than four
thousand (4,000) feet except, in the case of any well drilled and completed east
of longitude line 84 degrees 30'; shallow well means any well drilled and
completed at a depth less than four thousand (4,000) feet or above the base of
the lowest member of the Devonian Brown Shale, whichever is the deeper in
depth;
"Deep well" means any well drilled and completed below the depth herein
provided for a shallow well;
"Operator" means any owner of the right to develop, operate, and produce oil
and gas from a pool and to appropriate the oil and gas produced therefrom,
either for himself or for himself and others; in the event that there is no oil and
gas lease in existence with respect to the tract in question, the owner of the oil
and gas rights therein shall be considered as "operator" to the extent of
seven-eighths (7/8) of the oil and gas in that portion of the pool underlying the
tract owned by such owner, and as "royalty owner" as to one-eighth (1/8)
interest in such oil and gas; and in the event the oil is owned separately from
the gas, the owner of the right to develop, operate, and produce the substance
being produced or sought to be produced from the pool shall be considered as
"operator" as to such pool;
"Royalty owner" means any owner of oil and gas in place, or oil and gas rights,
to the extent that such owner is not an operator as defined in subsection (17) of
this section;
"Drilling unit" generally means the maximum area in a pool which may be
drained efficiently by one (1) well so as to produce the reasonable maximum
recoverable oil or gas in such area. Where the regulatory authority has
provided rules for the establishment of a drilling unit and an operator,
proceeding within the framework of the rules so prescribed, has taken the
action necessary to have a specified area established for production from a
well, such area shall be a drilling unit;
"Underground source of drinking water" means those subsurface waters
identified as such in regulations promulgated by the department which shall be
consistent with the definition of underground source of drinking water in
regulations promulgated by the Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to
the Safe Drinking Water Act, 42 U.S.C. secs. 300(f) et seq.;
"Underground injection" means the subsurface emplacement of fluids by well
injection but does not include the underground injection of natural gas for
purposes of storage;
"Endangerment of underground sources of drinking water" means underground
injection which may result in the presence in underground water, which
supplies or can reasonably be expected to supply any public water system, of
any contaminant and if the presence of such contaminant may result in such
system's not complying with any national primary drinking water regulation or
may otherwise adversely affect the health of persons;
(23) "Class II well" means wells which inject fluids:
(a) Which are brought to the surface in connection with conventional oil or
natural gas production and may be commingled with waste waters from
gas plants which are an integral part of production operations, unless
those waters are classified as a hazardous waste at the time of injection;
(b) For enhanced recovery of oil or natural gas; and
(c) For storage of hydrocarbons which are liquid at standard temperature and
pressure;
(24) "Fluid" means any material or substance which flows or moves whether in a
semisolid, liquid, sludge, gas, or any other form or state.
Effective:July 15, 2010
History: Amended 2010 Ky. Acts ch. 24, sec. 1903, effective July 15, 2010. -Amended 2005 Ky. Acts ch. 123, sec. 64, effective June 20, 2005. -- Amended
2000 Ky. Acts ch. 139, sec. 1, effective July 14, 2000. -- Amended 1986 Ky.
Acts ch. 277, sec. 1, effective July 15, 1986. -- Amended 1974 Ky. Acts ch. 45,
sec. 1. -- Amended 1966 Ky. Acts ch. 255, sec. 259. -- Created 1960 Ky. Acts
ch. 103, sec. 2.
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