§ 45-9-2 — Definition of terms.

Terms used in this chapter mean: (1) "Board," the Board of Minerals and Environment; (2) "Condensate," liquid hydrocarbons that were originally in the gaseous phase in the reservoir; (3) "Developed area," a spacing unit on which a well has been completed that is capable of producing oil or gas, or the acreage that is otherwise attributed to a well by the board for allowable purposes; (4) "Field," the general area underlaid by one or more pools; (5) "Gas," all natural gas and all other fluid hydrocarbons not defined in subdivision (7) as oil, including condensate because it originally was in the gaseous phase in the reservoir; (6) "Just and equitable share of the production," as to each person, that part of the authorized production from the pool that is substantially in the proportion that the amount of recoverable oil or gas or both in the developed area of the person's tract or tracts in the pool bears to the recoverable oil or gas or both in the total of the developed areas of the pool; (7) "Oil," crude petroleum oil and other hydrocarbons regardless of gravity that are produced at the wellhead in liquid form, but not liquid hydrocarbons that were originally in a gaseous phase in the reservoir; (8) "Owner," the person who has the right to drill into and produce from a pool and to appropriate the oil or gas the person produces from the pool; (9) "Person," any natural person, corporation, limited liability company, association, partnership, receiver, trustee, personal representative, guardian, fiduciary, or other representative of any kind, including any department, agency, or instrumentality of the state or of any governmental subdivision of the state; (10) "Pool," 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; (11) "Premises," the surface property of the landowner or lessee, both real and personal, and the ingress to and the egress from the real property; (12) "Producer," the owner of a well or wells capable of producing oil or gas or both; (13) "Product," any commodity made from oil or gas, including refined crude oil, crude tops, topped crude, processed crude, processed crude petroleum, residue from crude petroleum, cracking stock, uncracked fuel oil, fuel oil, treated crude oil, gas oil, residuum, casinghead gasoline, natural gas, gasoline, kerosene, benzene, 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, and blends or mixtures of two or more liquid products or by-products derived from oil or gas; (14) "Protect correlative rights," the action or regulation by the board affords a reasonable opportunity to each person so entitled to recover or receive the oil or gas in the person's tract or tracts or the equivalent, without being required to drill unnecessary wells or to incur other unnecessary expense to recover or receive such oil or gas or its equivalent; (15) "Waste,": (a) Physical waste, as that term is generally understood in the oil and gas industry; (b) The inefficient, excessive, or improper use of, or the unnecessary dissipation of reservoir energy; (c) The inefficient storing of oil or gas; (d) The drilling of unnecessary wells; (e) The locating, spacing, drilling, equipping, operating, or producing of any oil or gas well or wells in a manner that causes, or tends to cause, reduction in the quantity of oil or gas ultimately recoverable from a pool under prudent and proper operations, or that causes or tends to cause unnecessary or excessive surface loss or destruction of oil or gas; (f) The underground or above ground waste in the production or storage of oil or gas, however caused, and whether or not defined in other subdivisions of this section.

Legislative History

SL 1943, ch 153, § 4; SL 1951, ch 221, § 1; SDC Supp 1960, § 42.0704; SL 1961, ch 211, § 1; SL 1983, ch 13, § 25; SL 1994, ch 351, § 110; SL 1995, ch 167, § 188.