Title XXVIII, Mines and Minerals

Defense, indemnification, and hold harmless of pore space or surface owner by Commonwealth -- Release of liability -- Filing of completion certificate and survey with county clerk. (1) The cabinet may issue a completion certificate upon application by the sequestration operator d…

(1) There is hereby created in the State Treasury an interest-bearing, restricted, agency account to be known as the carbon dioxide sequestration facility administrative fund. All amounts required to be deposited into the fund shall not be segregated into separate accounts but ma…

(1) Class VI permit applicants shall pay an application fee to the cabinet. The application fee established on the fee schedule developed under KRS 353.459 shall be calculated to ensure sufficient funds are available for the actual or anticipated cost to the cabinet for the revie…

(1) There is hereby created in the State Treasury an interest-bearing, restricted, agency account to be known as the carbon dioxide sequestration facility trust fund. Moneys in the fund shall be used for: (a) The long-term monitoring and management of sequestration facilities pri…

(1) Sequestration operators shall pay the cabinet a fee on each ton of carbon dioxide injected for sequestration. The fee shall be paid at the time of injection and deposited into the carbon dioxide sequestration facility trust fund established in KRS 353.441. The fee shall be ca…

(1) The cabinet shall, upon request of an operator, certify the amount of injected carbon dioxide demonstrated to have been stored in a reservoir that has been or is being used for a Class II well in an enhanced oil or gas recovery project. Upon request of an operator, the cabine…

and relationship of severed mineral estate and pore space owner. KRS 353.411 to 353.459 shall not be construed as altering the respective legal rights or relationship between the severed mineral estate and a pore space owner as they exist at common law.

pore space by order of cabinet -- Pooling order -- Costs -- Hearing -- Seismic survey -- Liability. (1) If a sequestration operator is unable, after reasonable effort, to obtain the consent of all pore space owners within a proposed reservoir for an underground carbon dioxide seq…

(1) The sequestration operator shall deposit the funds due to unknown or missing pore space owners in an interest-bearing trust account. (2) If the unknown or missing pore space owners remain unknown or missing for a period of seven (7) years from the date of first injection into…

If any provision of KRS 353.411 to 353.459 or its application to any person or circumstances is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of KRS 353.411 to 353.459 which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to t…

353.459 -- Penalties -- Orders -- Actions -- Venue. (1) (a) If a person or operator fails to comply with the requirements of KRS 353.411 to 353.459 or any administrative regulation or order promulgated or issued thereunder, the cabinet shall issue a notice of noncompliance to the…

responsibility for underground injection control -- Administrative regulations -- Requirements. (1) In addition to the powers conferred upon the cabinet in other provisions of KRS 353.411 to 353.459, the cabinet may develop, promulgate, and submit for approval a regulatory progra…

As used in KRS 353.462 to 353.476, the following definitions shall apply: (1) A "severed mineral interest" is any whole or fractional interest in any or all minerals which have been severed from the surface estate by grant, exception, reservation or other means. (2) An "unknown o…

The Circuit Court of the county wherein the severed mineral interests sought to be leased, or the major portion thereof, is situated shall have jurisdiction of the proceedings authorized under KRS 353.464 through 353.476.

institute proceedings. (1) If the title to any severed mineral interest is vested in an unknown or missing owner and it appears that the development of the minerals will be advantageous to the owner, the Circuit Court of the county in which the minerals or the major portion there…

locate owners -- Advertisement and lis pendens notice, contents -- Trustee ad litem. (1) The person seeking to impress a trust upon a severed mineral interest for the purpose of leasing and developing same shall join as defendants to the action all those persons having record tit…

Bond of trustee -- Sale of lease -- Trustee's report -- When court not to authorize trustee's lease -- Trustee to use percentage of funds to search for owner -- Period during which unknown or missing owner may establish identity and title. (1) If, upon presentation to the Circuit…

Payment to surface owner -- Final report of trustee -- Termination of trust. (1) If the severed mineral interests which are the subject of a trustee's lease executed and delivered in accordance with KRS 353.468(3) are produced commercially, and the owners of the severed mineral i…

commercially. If the leased minerals are never produced commercially during the term of the trustee's lease, the trustee shall pay any proceeds accruing from the lease to the then surface owners upon the termination of the lease in accordance with its terms or upon the expiration…

All attorneys' fees, expenses, and court costs incident to the original proceedings authorized hereunder shall be paid by the lessee if a lease is executed pursuant hereto, and by the plaintiff if for any reason no lease is executed. Subsequent to entry of judgment, all allowable…

After the expiration of seven (7) years from the date of first commercial production of the severed mineral pursuant to the terms of the lease authorized hereunder, or the expiration of seven (7) years from the date of entry of judgment authorizing the lease in the event there is…

(1) It is hereby declared to be the public policy of this Commonwealth to foster conservation of all mineral resources, to encourage exploration for such resources, to protect correlative rights of land and mineral owners, to prohibit waste and unnecessary surface loss and damage…

As used in KRS 353.500 to 353.720, unless the context otherwise requires: (1) "Department" means the Department for Natural Resources; (2) "Commissioner" means the commissioner of the Department for Natural Resources; (3) "Director" means the director of the Division of Oil and G…

prohibited. (1) KRS 353.500 to 353.720 shall apply to all lands located in the Commonwealth, however owned, including any lands owned or administered by any government or any agency or political subdivision thereof, over which the Commonwealth has jurisdiction under its police po…

(1) The secretary of the Energy and Environment Cabinet shall appoint, as director of the Division of Oil and Gas in the Department for Natural Resources, a person who has, at the time of his appointment, at least five (5) years' experience in the exploration for or the productio…

(1) The department is authorized and it shall be its duty to administer and enforce KRS 353.500 to 353.720, all rules and regulations promulgated and orders issued hereunder, and to conduct such investigations as it deems necessary. (2) The department is hereby granted authority …

Without limiting its general authority, the department shall have the specific authority to require of and from all operators of any oil or gas property in this Commonwealth: (1) Identification of producing leases, submitted on the form on which production is required by the depa…

(1) Without limiting its general authority, the department shall regulate: (a) The drilling and plugging of all wells; (b) The spacing or locating of wells; and (c) The use of vacuum. (2) The department shall make recommendations to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and th…

preventive actions. (1) For the purposes of this section and KRS 353.562, 353.563, and 353.564, a storage tank facility that is not being actively used and maintained shall be deemed abandoned if: (a) The cabinet sends written notice, by certified mail, return receipt requested, …

Program -- Kentucky abandoned storage tank and orphan well reclamation fund -- Use of funds received from federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act -- Initial grants -- Grant types. (1) (a) There is hereby created the Kentucky Abandoned Storage Tank and Orphan Well Reclamati…

abandoned storage tank facility or improperly abandoned well. (1) The cabinet and its authorized representatives, agents, and contractors shall have the right and authority to enter upon property threatened by an abandoned storage tank facility or improperly abandoned well and to…

Cabinet's authority to recover actual and necessary expenses incurred in implementing KRS 353.561 to 353.564 -- Cabinet's powers when seeking cost- efficiency or public benefit -- Administrative regulations. (1) (a) Any prior owner or the surface owner shall be deemed to have wai…

(1) There is hereby created in the Department for Natural Resources, the "Kentucky Oil and Gas Conservation Commission" which shall be composed of five (5) members. Four (4) of the members shall be appointed by the Governor and the fifth member, who shall serve as chairman of the…

of permit. (1) No person shall drill or deepen a well, drill a stratigraphic test well, or reopen a plugged well for the production of oil or gas or for the injection of water, gas or other fluid into any oil or gas producing formation (except seismograph test holes) after June 1…

-- When operator ineligible to receive a permit or become a successor operator, factors considered -- Energy and Environment Cabinet to promulgate administrative regulations relating to compliance with eligibility requirements -- Restoration of eligibility for applicants, operato…

permitted area. Prior to the issuance of a permit to drill an oil or gas well on land which is permitted or bonded under the provisions of KRS Chapter 350, the applicant shall certify that he has met and conferred with, or offered to meet and confer with, the permittee as to any …

(1) Each permit issued under KRS 353.500 to 353.720 shall expire one (1) year after the date issued, unless the drilling, deepening, or reopening of a well is commenced pursuant thereto prior to the expiration of the one (1) year period. However, the permit term shall be extended…

(1) Any person may investigate an abandoned well upon receipt of approval from the department. The person shall submit to the department: (a) An application requesting approval to investigate and stating the planned methods for the investigation. In all cases where there has been…

Blanket bonds -- Corporate guarantee -- Use of forfeited funds -- Oil and gas well plugging fund -- Well closure orders -- Requirements for permitted stratigraphic test wells -- Wells not included in "water supply well" -- Review under KRS 353.700. (1) Any person seeking a permit…

agreement or mediation -- Mediation report -- Review under KRS 353.700. (1) A well operator shall submit to the department an operations and reclamation plan at the time of filing an application for permit to drill, deepen, or reopen a well. The plan shall be filed on forms provi…

The purpose of KRS 353.592 and 353.593 shall be, upon delegation of authority for administration of the Underground Injection Control Program under Section 1425 of the Safe Drinking Water Act (Public Law 93-523 as amended), to protect underground sources of drinking water and to …

In addition to the powers conferred upon the department by KRS 353.500 to 353.720 and notwithstanding any provision of KRS 353.500 to 353.720, the department is authorized but not obligated to develop and promulgate a regulatory program for the purpose of accepting primary respon…

Appeals may be taken from all final orders of the department to issue, deny, modify, or revoke any permit under the Underground Injection Control Program. Appeals shall be taken to the cabinet's Office of Administrative Hearings.

for damage to surface -- Restoration of surface. (1) As used in this section: (a) "Person" means any natural person, corporation, firm, partnership, venture, receiver, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary, or other representative of any kind, and includes any gov…

A well operator shall replace the water supply of any owner of interest in real property who obtains all or part of his supply of water for domestic, agriculture, industrial, or other legitimate use from an underground or surface source where the supply has been substantially dis…

(1) Except as provided in KRS 353.500 to 353.720, no permits shall be issued for the drilling, deepening, or reopening of any shallow well for the production of oil, unless the proposed location of the well shall be at least three hundred thirty (330) feet from the nearest minera…