Rule 26-2-1.2 - DEFINITIONS Unless the context otherwise requires, the words hereinafter defined shall have the following meaning when found in these rules, to-wit:
(a) "Board" shall mean the State Oil & Gas Board created by Chapter 256 of the Laws of 1948.(b) "Person" shall mean any individual, corporation, partnership, association, or any state, municipality, political subdivision of any state, or any agency, department, or instrumentality of the United States, or any other entity, or any officer, agent, or employee of any of the above.(c) "Oil" shall mean crude petroleum oil and all 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.(d) "Gas" shall mean all natural gas, including casing head gas, and all other hydrocarbons not defined as oil in subsection (c) above, or as condensate in subsection (f) below.(e) "Casinghead Gas" shall mean any gas or vapor, or both gas and vapor, indigenous to an oil pool and produced from such pool with oil.(f) "Condensate" shall mean liquid hydrocarbons which, at the time of discovery, existed in the gaseous state in the reservoir.(g) "Barrel of Oil" shall mean forty-two (42) United States gallons of oil, computed at sixty (60) degrees Fahrenheit, with deductions for the full amount of basic sediment, water, and other impurities, present, ascertained by centrifugal or other recognized and customary test.(h) For the purpose of reporting, a "Cubic Foot of Gas" shall mean volume of gas expressed in cubic feet and computed at a base pressure of ten (10) ounces per square inch above the average barometric pressure of 14.4 pounds per square inch (15.025 psia), at a standard base temperature of sixty (60) degrees Fahrenheit.(i) "Gas Well" shall mean any well the production from which is predominantly gas or condensate, or both.(j) "Oil Well" shall mean any well capable of producing oil and which is not a gas well as defined herein.(k) "Bottom Hole Pressure" shall mean the pressure in pounds per square inch at or near the face of the producing pool which is measured by means of a pressure recording instrument or any other scientific instrument, recognized by the oil and gas industry, with readings corrected to a predetermined datum plane.(l) "Day" shall mean a period of twenty-four (24) consecutive hours from 7 A.M. one day to 7 A.M. the following day.(m) "Month and Calendar Month" shall mean the period of interval of time from 7 A.M. on the first day of any month of the calendar to 7 A.M. on the first day of the next succeeding month of the calendar.(n) "Pool" shall mean an underground reservoir containing a common accumulation of oil or gas or both. Each zone of a general structure which is completely separated from any other zone in the structure is included in the term "pool" as used herein.(o) "Field" shall mean the general area which is underlain or appears to be underlain by at least one pool; and "field" shall include the underground reservoir or reservoirs containing oil or gas or both. The words "field" and "pool" mean the same thing when only one underground reservoir is involved; however, "field," unlike "pool," may relate to two (2) or more pools.(p) "Owner" shall mean the person who has the right to drill into and produce from any pool, and to appropriate the production either for himself or for himself and another or others. "Royalty Owner" shall mean any person who possesses an interest in the production but who is not an "owner" as herein defined.(q) "Producer" shall mean the owner of a well or wells capable of producing oil or gas or both.(r) "Operator" shall mean any person who, duly authorized, is in charge of the development of a lease or the operation of a producing well.(s) "Transporter" shall mean any person except a railroad company who transports oil or gas.(t) "Pressure Maintenance" shall mean the introduction of gas or liquid for the purpose of maintaining the pressure of the reservoir.(u) "Supervisor" shall mean the State Oil and Gas Supervisor of Mississippi.(v) "Product" shall mean any commodity made from oil or gas and shall include refined crude oil, processed crude petroleum, residuum from crude petroleum, cracking stock, uncracked fuel oil, fuel oil, treated crude oil, residuum, casing head gasoline, natural gas gasoline, naphtha, distillate, gasoline, kerosene, 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 (2) or more liquid products or by-products derived from oil, condensate, gas or petroleum hydrocarbons, whether hereinabove enumerated or not.(w) "Illegal Oil and Illegal Gas" shall mean oil or gas which has been produced within the State of Mississippi from any well during any time that the well has produced in excess of the amount allowed by law or any rule, regulation or order of the Board. "Illegal Product" shall mean any product derived, in whole or part, from illegal oil or illegal gas.(x) "Waste" shall mean and include the following: (1) The inefficient, excessive, or improper use of dissipation of reservoir energy; and the locating, spacing, drilling, equipping, operating or producing of any oil or gas well or wells in a manner which results or tends to result in reducing the quantity of oil or gas ultimately to be recovered from any pool in this state.(2) The inefficient storing of oil; and the locating, spacing, drilling, equipping, operating or producing of any oil or gas well or wells in a manner causing or tending to cause unnecessary or excessive surface loss or destruction of oil or gas.(3) Abuse of the correlative rights and opportunities of each owner of oil or gas in a pool due to non-uniform, disproportionate, or unratable withdrawals causing undue drainage between tracts of land or resulting in one or more owners in such pool producing more than his just and equitable share of the production from such pool.(4) Producing oil or gas in such manner as to cause unnecessary channeling of water or gas or both or coning of water.(5) The operation of any oil well or wells with an inefficient gas-oil ratio.(6) The drowning with water of any stratum or part thereof capable of producing oil or gas.(7) The creation of unnecessary fire hazards.(8) The escape into the open air, from a well producing both oil and gas, for gas in excess of the amount which is necessary in the efficient drilling or operation of the well.(9) Permitting gas produced from a gas well to escape into open air.(10) The use of gas from gas wells, except sour gas, for the manufacture of carbon black, except and unless the Board shall find that there are no adequate pipeline connections to otherwise market the gas.(y) "Drainage Unit" or "Drilling Unit" shall mean 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.(z) "Developed Area" or Developed Unit" shall mean a drainage unit having a well completed therein which is capable of producing oil or gas in paying quantities.(aa) A "Certificate of Compliance" shall mean a certificate issued by the Board showing compliance with the conservation laws of the State, and conservation rules, regulations and orders of the Board, prior to connection with a pipeline.(bb) A "Certificate of Clearance" shall mean a permit for the transportation or the delivery of oil, gas or products, approved and issued or registered under the authority of the Board.(cc) "Driller's Log" shall mean the written record progressively describing the strata, water, oil or gas encountered in drilling a well.(dd) "Wildcat Well" shall mean a drilling well in an unproven area.(ee) "Stratum" shall mean a layer of rock more or less similar throughout, a lithological unit.(ff) "Seismograph Shot Holes" shall mean those holes used in reflection and refraction seismic exploratory work only.(gg) "Core Drilled Holes" shall mean those holes used only for sub-surface mapping of shallow formation marker horizons.(hh) "Stratigraphic Tests" shall mean those holes drilled to secure information regarding sedimentary strata (including potential oil and gas reservoir rocks) and structural conditions.(ii) "Underground Injection Program" shall mean a program regulating the injection of any fluids produced or fluids associated with the exploration, storage and/or production of oil and/or gas and being among those other laws relating to the conservation of oil and gas as referred to in Section 53-1-17(a).(jj) Special Field Rules shall mean rules, superseding statewide rules, adopted by the board, after notice and hearing, that promote development and production of oil and gas for a particular field, or portion thereof. These rules may include, but are not limited to, pool definitions, geographical limits, well spacing, drilling requirement, production unit sizing, allowable production rates and special permitting procedures.MCA Section 53-1-17(3) (1972)