Title 38, Mining and Gas and Oil Production

A surface coal mining operator may petition the board of county commissioners to temporarily close or relocate a section line road or other road if the road interferes with the operator's conduct of surface coal mining operations. The board of county commissioners, if so petition…

Within thirty days after the board of county commissioners receives a petition to temporarily close or relocate a section line road or other road, the board shall fix a time and place for hearing, and the petitioner, at least ten days prior to the time fixed for the hearing, shal…

Each person, firm, association, partnership, corporation, or limited liability company exploring for oil, gas, coal, or other minerals in this state shall appoint an agent who must be registered with the secretary of state for the purpose of accepting service for any nonresident …

The length of any lode claim located within this state may not exceed one thousand five hundred feet [457.2 meters] along the vein or lode.

The width of lode claims is one hundred fifty feet [45.72 meters] on each side of the center of the vein or crevice, except that any county, at any general election by a majority of the votes cast on the question at such election, may determine upon a greater width not exceeding …

The discoverer of a lode, within sixty days from the date of discovery, shall record the discoverer's claim in the office of the recorder of the county in which such lode is situated by filing for record a location certificate containing all of the following: 1. The name of the l…

Before filing a location certificate, the discoverer shall: 1. Locate the discoverer's claim by sinking a discovery shaft thereon sufficient to show a well-defined mineral vein or lode. 2. Post at the point of discovery on the surface a plain sign or notice containing the name of…

Any opencut, crosscut, or tunnel at a depth sufficient to disclose the mineral vein or lode, an adit of at least ten feet [3.05 meters] in along the lode from the point where the lode may be discovered, or the drilling of a hole or holes in the manner, and under the conditions an…

From the time of uncovering or disclosing a lode, the discoverer has sixty days within which to sink a discovery shaft thereon.

The surface boundaries of the lode must be marked by eight substantial posts hewed or blazed on the side facing the claim and plainly marked with the name of the lode and the corner, end, or side of the claim that they respectively represent and sunk in the ground as follows: 1. …

The location as described in the location certificate of any lode claim must be construed to include all surface ground within the surface lines thereof, and all lodes and ledges throughout their entire depth the top or apex of which lies inside of such lines extended vertically,…

If the top or apex of the lode in its longitudinal course extends beyond the exterior lines of the claim at any point on the surface, or as extended vertically downward, such lode may not be followed in its longitudinal course beyond the point where it is intersected by the exter…

If the right to a mine is separate from the ownership or right of occupancy to the surface, the owner or rightful occupant of the surface may demand satisfactory security from the miner, and if such security is refused, may enjoin such miner from working until the same is given. …

If the locator of any mining claim, or the locator's assigns, shall apprehend that the original certificate was defective, erroneous, or that the requirements of the law had not been complied with before filing, or is desirous of changing the locator's surface boundaries, or of t…

The amount of work to be done or the improvements to be made during each year to hold possession of a mining claim must be the same as that prescribed by the applicable laws of the United States. The period within which the work required to be done annually on any unpatented clai…

The relocation of an abandoned lode claim must be made by: 1. Sinking a new discovery shaft and fixing new boundaries in the same manner as if it were the location of a new claim; or 2. Sinking the original shaft, cut, or adit to a sufficient depth to comply with sections 38-02-0…

No location certificate may claim more than one location, whether the location is made by one or several locators. If the certificate purports to claim more than one location, it is absolutely void except as to the first location therein described. If the locations are described …

In an action in any district court of this state wherein the title or right of possession to any mining claim is in dispute, the court, upon the application of any of the parties to such suit, may enter an order for such survey of the underground as well as the surface of such pa…

It is hereby declared to be in the public interest to foster, to encourage, and to promote the development, production, and utilization of natural resources of oil and gas in the state in such a manner as will prevent waste; to authorize and to provide for the operation and devel…

As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires: 1. "Abandoned pipeline" means an underground gathering pipeline that is no longer in service, is physically disconnected from in-service facilities, and is not intended to be reactivated for future use. 2. "Certifica…

Waste of oil and gas is prohibited.

1. The commission has continuing jurisdiction and authority over all persons and property, public and private, necessary to enforce effectively the provisions of this chapter. The commission has authority, and it is its duty, to make such investigations as it deems proper to dete…

The industrial commission may use hearing examiners under such rules and regulations as the commission may prescribe.

The plugging or replugging of a well or reclamation of a well site by the commission, its agents, employees, or contractors, shall not prevent the commission from seeking penalties or other relief provided by law from any person who is required by statutes, rules, or order of the…

1. There is hereby created a cash bond fund for the plugging of abandoned oil and gas wells and the reclamation of abandoned oil and gas well sites. 2. From all moneys held or controlled by the commission under paragraph 4 of subdivision a of subsection 1 of section 38-08-04, the…

1. Any land disturbed by construction of well sites, treating plants, saltwater handling facilities, access roads, underground gathering pipelines and associated facilities, and from remediation of leaks or spills within the jurisdiction of the commission shall be reclaimed as cl…

The industrial commission is authorized to appoint a director of mineral resources who shall serve at the pleasure of the commission. The director of mineral resources shall carry out the duties of the director of oil and gas along with the duties of director of mineral resources…

The commission may enter public and private contractual agreements for the plugging or replugging of oil and gas or injection wells, the removal or repair of related equipment, the reclamation of abandoned oil and gas or injection well sites, the reclamation of saltwater handling…

There is created an abandoned oil and gas well plugging and site reclamation fund. 1. Revenue to the fund must include: a. Fees collected by the oil and gas division of the industrial commission for permits or other services. b. Moneys received from the forfeiture of drilling and…

There is hereby established an oil and gas reservoir data fund to be used for defraying the costs of providing reservoir data compiled by the commission to state, federal, and county departments and agencies and members of the general public. All moneys collected pursuant to sect…

The commission, its agents, employees, or contractors shall have the right to enter any land for the purpose of plugging or replugging a well or the restoration of a well site as provided in section 38-08-04.4.

If the commission, its agents, employees, or contractors, plugs or replugs a well or reclaims a well site, pipeline facility, production facility, saltwater handling facility, or treating plant under the provisions of sections 38-08-04.4, 38-08-04.5, 38-08-04.7, 38-08-04.8, 38-08…

When the commission intends to exercise or has exercised its right to plug a well or reclaim a well site, pipeline facility, production facility, saltwater handling facility, or treating plant, the commission, as compensation for its costs, may confiscate any equipment and salabl…

1. A person may not commence operations for the drilling of a well for oil or gas without obtaining a permit from the industrial commission under rules as may be adopted by the commission and paying to the commission a fee for each well in an amount to be determined by the commis…

The commission shall determine market demand for each marketing district and regulate the amount of production as follows: 1. The commission shall limit the production of oil and gas within each marketing district to that amount which can be produced without waste, and which does…

Gas produced in this state must be processed and purchased without discrimination between producers in the same reservoir, recognizing the right of the purchaser to establish reasonable quality standards for acceptance of gas, which must be applied without discrimination among pr…

Any person who makes a payment to an owner of a royalty interest in land in this state for the purchase of oil or gas produced from that royalty interest shall provide with the payment to the royalty owner an information statement that will allow the royalty owner to clearly iden…

1. As permitted under rules of the industrial commission, gas produced with crude oil from an oil well may be flared during a one-year period from the date of first production from the well. 2. After the time period in subsection 1, flaring of gas from the well must cease and the…

The commission shall set spacing units as follows: 1. When necessary to prevent waste, to avoid the drilling of unnecessary wells, or to protect correlative rights, the commission shall establish spacing units for a pool. Spacing units when established must be of uniform size and…

1. When two or more separately owned tracts are embraced within a spacing unit, or when there are separately owned interests in all or a part of the spacing unit, then the owners and royalty owners thereof may pool their interests for the development and operation of the spacing …

An agreement for the unit or cooperative development and operation of a field or pool, in connection with the conduct of repressuring or pressure maintenance operations, cycling or recycling operations, including the extraction and separation of liquid hydrocarbons from natural g…

The legislative assembly finds and determines that it is desirable and necessary, under the circumstances and for the purposes hereinafter set out, to authorize and provide for unitized management, operation, and further development of the oil and gas properties to which sections…

A plan of unitization may not be considered fair and reasonable if it contains a provision for operating charges which include any part of district or central office expenses other than reasonable overhead charges.

The proper board or officer of the state having the control and management of state land, and the proper board or officer of any political, municipal, or other subdivision or agency of the state, are hereby authorized and have the power on behalf of the state or of such political…

Neither the unit production, nor proceeds from the sale thereof, nor other receipts may be treated, regarded, or taxed as income or profits of the unit; but instead, all such receipts are the income of the several persons to whom or to whose credit the same are payable under the …

For the purposes of sections 38-08-09.1 through 38-08-09.16, unless the context otherwise requires: 1. "Lessee" refers not only to lessees under oil and gas leases but also includes owners of unleased mineral rights having the right to develop the same for oil and gas to the exte…

No agreement between or among lessees or other owners of oil and gas rights in oil and gas properties, entered into pursuant hereto or with a view or for the purpose of bringing about the unitized development or operation of such properties, may be held to violate any of the stat…

Any person adversely affected by an order of the commission made under sections 38-08-09.1 through 38-08-09.16 may appeal from such order to the district court of the county in which the land or a part thereof involved in the unit lies, in the manner provided in section 38-08-14.

The commission upon its own motion may, and upon petition of any interested person shall, after notice therefor, hold a hearing to consider the need for the operation as a unit of two or more pools or parts thereof separated vertically in one field, and has the power to create su…

The commission is hereby vested with continuing jurisdiction, power, and authority, including the right to describe and set forth in its orders all those things pertaining to the plan of unitization which are fair, reasonable, and equitable and which are necessary or proper to pr…