§ 23-0101. Definitions.\n As used in this article, unless the context otherwise requires:\n 1. "Buffer zone" means all that area outside and surrounding the\nunderground gas storage reservoir which the department approves as\nappropriate to protect the integrity of the reservoir, no part of which\nshall be more than thirty-five hundred linear feet from the boundary\nthereof.\n 2. "Cavity" means an open or partially open space left after a salt\nhas been solution mined.\n 3. "Commissioner" means the commissioner of environmental\nconservation.\n 4. "Department" means the department of environmental conservation.\n 5. "Fund" means the oil and gas fund as established in section\neighty-three-a of the state finance law.\n 6. "Field" means the general area underlaid by one or more pools.
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§ 23-0101. Definitions.\n As used in this article, unless the context otherwise requires:\n 1. "Buffer zone" means all that area outside and surrounding the\nunderground gas storage reservoir which the department approves as\nappropriate to protect the integrity of the reservoir, no part of which\nshall be more than thirty-five hundred linear feet from the boundary\nthereof.\n 2. "Cavity" means an open or partially open space left after a salt\nhas been solution mined.\n 3. "Commissioner" means the commissioner of environmental\nconservation.\n 4. "Department" means the department of environmental conservation.\n 5. "Fund" means the oil and gas fund as established in section\neighty-three-a of the state finance law.\n 6. "Field" means the general area underlaid by one or more pools.\n 7. "Gas" means all natural, manufactured, mixed, and byproduct gas,\nand all other hydrocarbons not defined as oil in this section.\n 8. "Local agency" means any local agency, board, authority, school\ndistrict, commission or governing body, including any county, city,\ntown, village or other political subdivision of the state.\n 9. "Metered" means the physical measurement of gas by means acceptable\nto the department.\n 10. "Oil" means crude petroleum oil and all other hydrocarbons,\nregardless of gravity, that are produced at the wellhead in liquid form\nby ordinary production methods and that are not the result of\ncondensation of gas.\n 11. "Owner" means the person who has the right to drill into and\nproduce from a pool or a salt deposit and to appropriate the oil, gas or\nsalt he produces either for himself or others, or for himself and\nothers.\n 12. "Person" means and includes any natural person, corporation,\nassociation, partnership, receiver, trustee, executor, administrator,\nguardian, fiduciary, or other representative of any kind, and includes\nany department, agency or instrumentality of the state or any of its\ngovernmental subdivisions.\n 13. "Plug and abandon" means the plugging, replugging if necessary,\nand abandonment of a well bore including the placing of all bridges,\nplugs, and fluids therein and the restoration and reclamation of the\nsurface in the immediate vicinity to a reasonable condition consistent\nwith the adjacent terrain.\n 14. "Pool" means an underground reservoir containing a common\naccumulation of oil or gas or both; each zone of a structure which is\ncompletely separated from any other zone in the same structure is a\npool.\n 15. "Producer" means the owner of a well or wells capable of producing\noil, gas, or salt; or any salt or hydrocarbon mixture.\n 16. "Product" means any commodity made from oil or gas and includes\nrefined crude oil, crude tops, topped crude, processed crude, processed\ncrude petroleum, residue from crude petroleum, cracking stock, uncracked\nfuel oil, fuel oil, treated crude oil, residuum, gas oil, casinghead\ngasoline, natural-gas gasoline, kerosene, benzine, wash oil, waste oil,\nblended gasoline, lubricating oil, blends or mixtures of oil with one or\nmore liquid products or by-products derived from oil or gas, and blends\nor mixtures of two or more liquid products or by-products derived from\noil or gas, whether herein enumerated or not.\n 17. "Reservoir" means any underground reservoir, natural or artificial\ncavern or geologic dome, sand or stratigraphic trap, whether or not\npreviously occupied by or containing oil or gas.\n 18. "Salt" means sodium chloride, evaporite or other water soluble\nminerals, either in solution or as a solid or crystalline material in a\npure state or as a mixture.\n 19. "Solution mining" means the dissolving of an underground salt by\nwater to produce a brine for transport to another underground or surface\nlocation for sale, processing or storage.\n 20. "Waste" means\n a. Physical waste, as that term is generally understood in the oil and\ngas industry;\n b. The inefficient, excessive or improper use of, or the unnecessary\ndissipation of reservoir energy;\n c. The locating, spacing, drilling, equipping, operating, or producing\nof any oil or gas well or wells in a manner which causes or tends to\ncause reduction in the quantity of oil or gas ultimately recoverable\nfrom a pool under prudent and proper operations, or which causes or\ntends to cause unnecessary or excessive surface loss or destruction of\noil or gas;\n d. The inefficient storing of oil or gas; and\n e. The flaring of gas produced from an oil or condensate well after\nthe department has found that the use of the gas, on terms that are just\nand reasonable, is, or will be economically feasible within a reasonable\ntime.\n