Title 11 . Natural Resources

Chapter 88 . (No Regulations Filed)

Section 185. Definitions

11 AAC 88.185. Definitions

As used in 11 AAC 82 - 11 AAC 88 and unless the context clearly requires a different meaning or unless otherwise defined in these chapters,

(1) "adjacent" means touching or lying in close proximity, as opposed to "contiguous" which requires a common boundary;

(2) "cash" means cashier's or certified checks drawn on any solvent bank in the United States, postal or telegraphic money orders or legal tender of the United States of America, or any combination of these;

(3) "commissioner" means the Commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources;

(4) "cooperative agreement" means an agreement or plan of development and operation for the recovery of oil and gas from any pool, field, or like area or any part thereof in which separate ownership units are independently operated pursuant to the agreement without allocation of production;

(5) "director" means the Director of the Division of Lands;

(6) "division" means the Division of Lands, Department of Natural Resources;

(7) "filing office" means any place designated by the director as a filing office for applications, payments and filings under 11 AAC 82 - 11 AAC 88;

(8) "gas" means all natural gas and all hydrocarbons produced at a well not defined herein as oil;

(9) "gas well" means (A) a well which produces natural gas only; (B) that part of a well where the gas producing stratum has been successfully cased off from the oil, and the gas and oil being produced through separate casing or tubing; (C) any well classed as a gas well by the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in the administration of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Act;

(10) "leasehold location" or "mining leasehold location" means the interests in land subject to a location under AS 38.05.205 before a lease has been issued;

(11) "legal subdivision" means an aliquot part of a section of land according to the public land rectangular survey system, not smaller than one-quarter of one-quarter of one section of land, containing approximately 40 acres; where a section of land contains section lots, "legal subdivision" also means those section lots; "legal subdivision" also means a protracted legal subdivision according to any protracted public land rectangular survey prepared by the division or Bureau of Land Management of the Department of the Interior, and made available to prospective applicants for leases;

(12) "lessee or permittee of record" means the original lessee or permittee under any lease or permit or, if an assignment has been approved at any time, the latest assignee whose assignment has been approved;

(13) "locatable minerals" means those minerals which, on January 3, 1959, were subject to location under the United States mining laws (30 U.S.C.);

(14) "Mineral Leasing Act" means the Act of Congress of February 25, 1920 (41 Stat. 437, 30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.), as amended;

(15) "offshore" means tide and submerged lands, that is, those lands lying seaward from the line of mean high tide;

(16) "oil" means crude petroleum oil and other hydrocarbons regardless of gravity which are produced and saved in liquid form at the well by ordinary production methods;

(17) "oil well" means any well operated for the primary purpose of producing oil and which by the nature of its production cannot be classed as a gas well as defined in paragraph (6) of this section;

(18) "operating agreement" means an agreement giving the operator the right to carry on operations authorized by a lease or leases and to share in production obtained from the leased lands;

(19) "option" means an option to obtain an assignment of or an operating agreement covering a lease or portion of one;

(20) "order" means a determination made by the director or the commissioner in accordance with authority lawfully vested in him, issued in writing, filed in the permanent files of the division, posted in a conspicuous place in the offices of the division and made continuously available for inspection by the public;

(21) "participating area" means that part of an oil and gas lease unit area to which production is allocated in the manner described in a unit agreement;

(22) "person" includes a corporation and an association of persons;

(23) "pool" means an underground reservoir containing or appearing to contain 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 a pool;

(24) "primary term" means the initial term of an oil and gas lease and any extension of it;

(25) "smallest legal subdivision" means one-quarter of one-quarter of one section of land, containing 40 acres more or less, except where a section contains smaller section lots according to the public land rectangular survey or a protracted public land rectangular survey prepared by the division or by the Bureau of Land Management of the Department of the Interior, and made available to prospective applicants for leases, in which case "smallest legal subdivision" means those smaller section lots; as to unsurveyed land not covered by such a protracted survey, it means a square containing 40 acres, more or less;

(26) "status record" means the basic record maintained by the division to show the status of every tract of land and of leases and applications for leases on them;

(27) "unit agreement" means an agreement or plan of development and operation for the recovery of oil and gas from a pool, field or like area, or any part of one, as a single consolidated unit without regard to separate ownerships, and for the allocation of costs and benefits on a basis as defined in the agreement or plan; "unit agreement" also includes "cooperative agreement" unless the context clearly requires the more restricted meaning;

(28) "unit area" means the area described in a unit agreement as constituting the land logically subject to development under the agreement;

(29) "unit operator" means the person, corporation or association designated under a unit agreement to conduct operations on unitized lands as specified in the agreement;

(30) "unitized land" means the part of a unit area committed to a unit agreement;

(31) "unitized substance" means deposits of oil, gas and associated substances produced with them recoverable by operations pursuant to a unit agreement;

(32) "working interest" means the interest held in lands by virtue of a lease, operating agreement, fee title or otherwise, under which the owner of the interest is vested with the right to explore for, develop and produce minerals; the right delegated to a unit operator by a unit agreement is not a working interest;

(33) "qualified to do business in Alaska" means holding the state certificates necessary to lawfully conduct business within the state;

(34) "leasehold," "mining lease," or "upland mining lease" means the interests in land subject to a mining lease issued in accordance with AS 38.05.205 ;

(35) "location" or "mining location" means a location on state-selected land authorized under AS 38.06.275 , a mining claim made under AS 38.05.195 , a leasehold location made under AS 38.05.205 or a prospecting site location made under AS 38.05.245 ;

(36) "locator" means the initial person to stake or locate a mining location or the current owner of a mining location;

(37) "ADL number" means the serial number assigned by the department to a casefile;

(38) "associated substances" means all substances produced in association with oil or gas and not defined herein as oil or gas;

(39) "mineral" means a naturally occurring substance with a characteristic chemical composition expressed by a chemical formula, including oil and gas.

History: Eff. 9/5/74, Register 51; am 3/27/82, Register 81; am 5/30/85, Register 94; am 5/18/90, Register 114; am 5/22/93, Register 126; am 9/10/98, Register 147

Authority: AS 38.05.020

AS 38.05.177