§ 17-502. Definitions.  


Latest version.
  • As used in this act:

    1.  "Commission" shall mean the Corporation Commission of Oklahoma;

    2.  "Person" shall include any individual, partnership, corporation or association of whatever character;

    3.  "Common source of supply" shall include that area which is underlain, or which from geological or other scientific data, or from drilling operations, or other evidence, appears to be underlain by a common accumulation of brine; provided, that, if any such area is underlain or appears from geologic or other scientific data, or from drilling operations, or from other evidence to be underlain by more than one common accumulation of brine separated from each other by a strata of earth and not connected with each other, then such area, as to each said common accumulation of brine, shall be deemed a separate common source of supply;

    4.  "Brine" shall mean subterranean saltwater and all of its constituent parts and chemical substances therein contained, including, but not limited to bromine, magnesium, potassium, lithium, boron, chlorine, iodine, calcium, strontium, sodium, sulphur, barium or other chemical substances produced with or separated from such saltwater.  Brine produced as an incident to the production of oil or gas, unless such brine is saved or sold for the purposes of removing chemical substances therefrom, shall not be considered brine for the purposes of this act.  Gas, whether found in solution or otherwise, shall not be included within the meaning of the term "brine";

    5.  "Brine owner" shall mean any person entitled to share in the proceeds from the sale of brine production;

    6.  "Solution gas" shall mean all gas produced from brine wells from the brine common source of supply within the unit area;

    7.  "Solution gas owner" shall mean any person entitled to share in the proceeds from the sale of solution gas;

    8.  "Owner" or "owners", unless a more specific term is used, shall mean any person or entity who qualifies as either a brine owner or a solution gas owner;

    9.  "Operator" shall mean a person who has the right to drill into and produce from any brine common source of supply and to appropriate that production, either for himself, or for himself and others, and is authorized by the Commission to drill;

    10.  "Effluent" shall mean the liquid remaining after extraction of the chemical substances from brine;

    11.  "Brine production unit" or "unit" shall mean each separate specific area of land so designated by order of the Commission for production of brine and associated solution gas and the injection of effluent;

    12.  "Injection well" shall mean a well authorized by the Commission for the injection of effluent or other solutions; and

    13.  "Manufacture" shall mean the complete process of drilling, completing, equipping and operating production and injection wells and of extracting and packaging brine.

Added by Laws 1990, c. 255, § 3, eff. Sept. 1, 1990.