#### § 3000.5 Definitions.

As used in 43 CFR parts 3000 and 3100, the term:

*Acquired lands* means lands which the United States obtained by deed through purchase or gift, or through condemnation proceedings, including lands previously disposed of under the public land laws including the mining laws.

*Acreage for which expressions of interest have been submitted* means acreage that is identified in an expression of interest received by the BLM, that has not been proposed for leasing in any pending sale or other expression of interest pending BLM disposition, and for which the BLM may lawfully issue an oil and gas lease.

*Acres offered for lease* means all acres that the BLM has offered for oil and gas lease, regardless of whether those acres are acreage for which expressions of interest have been submitted.

*Act* or *MLA* means the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, as amended and supplemented (30 U.S.C. 181 *et seq.*).

*Anniversary date* means the same day and month in succeeding years as that on which the lease became effective.

*Authorized officer* means any BLM employee authorized to perform the duties described in parts 3000 and 3100.

*BLM* or *Bureau* means the Bureau of Land Management.

*Director* means the Director of the Bureau of Land Management.

*Gas* means any fluid, either combustible or noncombustible, which is produced in a natural state from the earth and which maintains a gaseous or rarefied state at ordinary temperatures and pressure conditions.

*Interest* means ownership in a lease, or prospective lease, of all or a portion of the record title, working interest, operating rights, overriding royalty, payments out of production, carried interests, net profit share or similar instrument for participation in the benefit derived from a lease. An *interest* may be created by direct or indirect ownership, including options. *Interest* does not mean stock ownership, stockholding or stock control in an application, offer, competitive bid or lease, except for purposes of acreage limitations in 43 CFR 3101.20 and qualifications of lessees in 43 CFR subpart 3102.

*Oil* means all nongaseous hydrocarbon substances other than those substances leasable as coal, oil shale or gilsonite (including all vein-type solid hydrocarbons).

*ONRR* means the Office of Natural Resources Revenue.

*Party in interest* means a party who is or will be vested with any interest under the lease as defined in this section. No one is a sole party in interest with respect to an application, offer, competitive bid or lease in which any other party has an interest.

*Person* means any individual, firm, corporation, association, partnership, consortium, or joint venture.

*Proper BLM office* means the Bureau of Land Management state office having jurisdiction over the lands subject to the regulations in parts 3000 and 3100.

(See 43 CFR 1821.10 for office location and area of jurisdiction of Bureau of Land Management offices.)

*Properly filed* means a document or form submitted to the proper BLM office with all necessary information and payments, as provided in 43 CFR subpart 1822.

*Public domain lands* means lands, including mineral estates, which never left the ownership of the United States, lands which were obtained by the United States in exchange for public domain lands, lands which have reverted to the ownership of the United States through the operation of the public land laws and other lands specifically identified by the Congress as part of the public domain.

*Secretary* means the Secretary of the Interior.

*Surface managing agency* means any Federal agency, other than the BLM, having management responsibility for the surface resources that overlay federally owned minerals.