30 U.S.C. § 1712 — Duties of lessees, operators, and motor vehicle transporters
submitted 43 years ago by Pub. L. 97-451 to r/title-30-MINERAL-LANDS-AND-MINING · 505 words · no verdicts yet
This section assigns payment responsibility for royalties and other lease payments and permits payment designees without lease liability. It requires operators to protect production from theft and report well production, and requires oil and gas transporters to carry or maintain specified documentation.
(a) Liability for royalty payments. To increase receipts and collect royalties and other payments effectively, a lessee required to make a royalty or other payment under a lease or the mineral-leasing laws must make it at the time and in the manner specified by the Secretary or the applicable delegated State.
A lessee may designate someone to make all or part of the lease payments and must notify the Secretary or delegated State in writing. The designee may, in its own name, pay, offset, or credit money; make adjustments; request and receive refunds; and submit reports about the lessee’s required payments. Despite other provisions of this chapter, the designee is not liable for a lease payment obligation.
The person owning operating rights in a lease is primarily liable for that person’s proportional share of the lease’s payment obligations. If that person is not the person holding the legal record title, the legal-record-title holder is secondarily liable for that holder’s proportional share.
(b) Development of and compliance with site-security plan and minimum site-security measures by operators; notification to Secretary of well production. An operator must:
(1) develop and follow a site-security plan protecting oil or gas produced or stored at an onshore lease site from theft. The plan must meet minimum standards the Secretary sets by rule, taking account of the different circumstances at lease sites;
(2) develop and follow minimum site-security measures the Secretary considers appropriate to protect oil or gas produced or stored on a lease site or the Outer Continental Shelf from theft; and
(3) no later than the fifth business day after a well anywhere on a lease site, or allocated to one, begins production—or resumes production after being off production for more than 90 days—notify the Secretary in the required manner of the date production began or resumed.
(c) Possession of documentation by transporters of oil or gas by motor vehicle or pipeline. (1) Anyone transporting oil by motor vehicle from a lease site, or allocated to one, must carry on their person, in the vehicle, or under their immediate control documents showing at least the oil’s amount, origin, and intended first destination.
(2) Anyone transporting oil or gas by pipeline from a lease site, or allocated to one, on Federal or Indian lands must maintain documents showing at least the amount, origin, and intended first destination.
In order to increase receipts and achieve effective collections of royalty and other payments, a lessee who is required to make any royalty or other payment under a lease or under the mineral leasing laws, shall make such payments in the time and manner as may be specified by the Secretary or the applicable delegated State. A lessee may designate a person to make all or part of the payments due under a lease on the lessee’s behalf and shall notify the Secretary or the applicable delegated State in writing of such designation, in which event said designated person may, in its own name, pay, offset or credit monies, make adjustments, request and receive refunds and submit reports with respect to payments required by the lessee. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter to the contrary, a designee shall not be liable for any payment obligation under the lease. The person owning operating rights in a lease shall be primarily liable for its pro rata share of payment obligations under the lease. If the person owning the legal record title in a lease is other than the operating rights owner, the person owning the legal record title shall be secondarily liable for its pro rata share of such payment obligations under the lease.
An operator shall—
develop and comply with a site security plan designed to protect the oil or gas produced or stored on an onshore lease site from theft, which plan shall conform with such minimum standards as the Secretary may prescribe by rule, taking into account the variety of circumstances at lease sites;
develop and comply with such minimum site security measures as the Secretary deems appropriate to protect oil or gas produced or stored on a lease site or on the Outer Continental Shelf from theft; and
not later than the 5th business day after any well begins production anywhere on a lease site or allocated to a lease site, or resumes production in the case of a well which has been off of production for more than 90 days, notify the Secretary, in the manner prescribed by the Secretary, of the date on which such production has begun or resumed.
Any person engaged in transporting by motor vehicle any oil from any lease site, or allocated to any such lease site, shall carry, on his person, in his vehicle, or in his immediate control, documentation showing, at a minimum, the amount, origin, and intended first destination of the oil.
Any person engaged in transporting any oil or gas by pipeline from any lease site, or allocated to any lease site, on Federal or Indian lands shall maintain documentation showing, at a minimum, amount, origin, and intended first destination of such oil or gas.
Source credit: (Pub. L. 97–451, title I, § 102, Jan. 12, 1983, 96 Stat. 2450; Pub. L. 104–185, § 6(g), Aug. 13, 1996, 110 Stat. 1715.)
- 1983Enacted · Pub. L. 97-451 · 96 Stat. 2450
- 1996Amended · Pub. L. 104-185 · 110 Stat. 1715
A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by Pub. L. 97-451 on 1983-01-12.
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