§3. Definitions
Unless the context otherwise requires, the words defined in this Section have the
following meaning when found in this Subtitle:
(1) "Brine" means subterranean saltwater, whether contained in or produced from
a reservoir, and all of the saltwater's constituent parts, minerals, elements, compounds, or
substances contained in or dissolved in the saltwater, including but not limited to lithium,
bromine, barium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, iodine, or other constituent parts,
minerals, elements, compounds, or substances produced with or separated from the saltwater.
"Brine" does not include brine produced as an incident to the production of oil and gas,
unless the brine is saved, retained, used, or sold for the purpose of extracting the constituent
parts, minerals, elements, compounds, or substances contained or dissolved in the brine.
"Brine" also does not include underground sources of drinking water or brine created through
solution mining.
(2) "Brine production operations" means the exploration for, development of, or
production of brine through the use of a well or wells. "Brine production operations" may
include the reinjection of the brine, including after possible extraction of any constituent
parts, minerals, elements, compounds, or substances contained in or dissolved in the brine.
(3) "Department" means the Department of Conservation and Energy, or any
successor agency.
(4) "Employee" includes any personnel, classified and unclassified, retained by the
department to assist in the performance of duties related to expedited processing.
(5) "Expedited processing" shall mean the processing or review of permits, permit
modifications, licenses, registrations, plans, proposals, exceptions, or variances whereby the
Department of Conservation and Energy completes its administrative and technical review
within a timeline agreed to in writing.
(6) "Field" means the general area which is underlaid or appears to be underlaid by
at least one pool. It includes the underground reservoir or reservoirs containing crude
petroleum oil, natural gas, brine, or any combination thereof. The words "field" and "pool"
mean the same thing when only one underground reservoir is involved; however, "field",
unlike "pool", may relate to two or more pools.
(7) "Gas" means all natural gas, including casinghead gas, and all other hydrocarbons
not defined as oil in Paragraph (7) of this Section.
(8) "Illegal gas" means gas which has been produced within the state from any well
in excess of the amount allowed by any rule, regulation, or order of the department, as
distinguished from gas produced within the state not in excess of the amount so allowed by
any rule, regulation, or order, which is "legal gas."
(9) "Illegal oil" means oil which has been produced within the state from any well
in excess of the amount allowed by any rule, regulation, or order of the department, as
distinguished from oil produced within the state not in excess of the amount so allowed by
any rule, regulation, or order, which is "legal oil."
(10) "Illegal product" means any product of oil or gas, any part of which was
processed or derived, in whole or in part, from illegal oil or illegal gas or from any product
thereof, as distinguished from "legal product," which is a product processed or derived to no
extent from illegal oil or illegal gas.
(11) "Multiple mineral development area" means an area designated by the
department for the management and development of various concurrent surface and
sub-surface mineral or resource production or extraction operations, including exploratory
activities, for the purpose of efficient and effective development of minerals or resources in
the area without unreasonable interference.
(12) "Oil" means crude petroleum oil, and other hydrocarbons, regardless of gravity,
which are produced at the well head in liquid form by ordinary production methods.
(13) "Owner" means the person, including operators and producers acting on behalf
of the person, who has or had the right to drill into and to produce from a pool and to
appropriate the production either for himself or for others.
(14) "Person" means any natural person, corporation, association, partnership,
receiver, tutor, curator, executor, administrator, fiduciary, or representative of any kind.
(15) "Pool" means an underground reservoir containing a common accumulation of
crude petroleum oil, natural gas, brine, or any combination thereof. Each zone of a general
structure which is completely separated from any other zone in the structure is covered by
the term "pool" as used in this Chapter. However, to promote the development and
production of marginally commercial sands, a zone may contain one or more common
accumulations and the overall stratigraphic interval of the zone may be considered and
treated as a pool for all purposes of this Chapter.
(16) "Producer" means the owner of a well capable of producing oil, gas, brine, or any
combination thereof.
(17) "Product" means any commodity made from oil, gas, or brine. It includes but is
not limited to refined crude oil, crude tops, topped crude, processed crude petroleum, residue
from crude petroleum, cracking stock, uncracked fuel oil, fuel oil, treated crude oil,
residuum, gas oil, casinghead gasoline, natural gas gasoline, naphtha, distillate, gasoline,
kerosene, benzine, wash oil, waste oil, blended gasoline, lubricating oil, blends or mixtures
of oil with one or more liquid products or by-products derived from oil or gas, blends or
mixtures of two or more liquid products or by-products derived from oil or gas, lithium
carbonate, lithium hydroxide, and any other commodity or product made from the brine or
any constituent parts, minerals, elements, compounds, or substances contained in or
dissolved in the brine, whether enumerated in this Paragraph or not.
(18) "Solution mined cavern" means a cavity created within the salt stock by
dissolution with water.
(19) "Solution mining injection well" means a well into which fluids, other than
fluids associated with active drilling operations, are injected for extraction of minerals or
energy.
(20) "Tender" means a permit or certificate of clearance for the transportation of oil,
gas, or products, approved and issued or registered under the authority of the department.
(21) "Waste", in addition to its ordinary meaning, means "physical waste" as that
term is generally understood in the oil and gas industry. It includes the following:
(a) The inefficient, excessive, or improper use or dissipation of a reservoir; and the
location, spacing, drilling, equipping, operating, or producing of a well in a manner which
results, or tends to result, in reducing the quantity of oil, gas, or brine ultimately recoverable
from a pool.
(b) The inefficient storing of oil; the producing of oil or gas from a pool in excess
of transportation or marketing facilities or of reasonable market demand; and the locating,
spacing, drilling, equipping, operating, or producing of an oil or gas well in a manner
causing, or tending to cause, unnecessary or excessive surface loss or destruction of oil or
gas.
(c) The disposal, storage or injection of any waste product in the subsurface by
means of a disposal well.
(22) "Waste product" means any liquid, sludge, effluent, semi-liquid or other
substance resulting from any process, whether manufacturing or otherwise.