Arkansas Code of 1987 (2023) › Title 15 - NATURAL RESOURCES AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (§§ 15-1-101 — 15-76-324) › Subtitle 6 - OIL, GAS, AND BRINE (§§ 15-71-101 — 15-76-324) › Chapter 72 - OIL AND GAS PRODUCTION AND CONSERVATION (§§ 15-72-101 — 15-72-1112) › Subchapter 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS (§§ 15-72-101 — 15-72-110) › Section 15-72-102 - Definitions

As used in this act:
(1)
"Commission" means the Oil and Gas Commission;
(2)
(A)
"Field" means the general area which is underlaid or appears to be underlaid by at least one (1) pool. "Field" includes the underground reservoir or reservoirs containing crude petroleum oil or natural gas, or both.
(B)
(i)
The words "field" and "pool" mean the same thing when only one (1) underground reservoir is involved.
(ii)
However, "field", unlike "pool", may relate to two (2) or more pools;
(3)
"Gas" means all natural gas, including casing-head gas, and all other hydrocarbons not defined as oil in subdivision (7) of this section;
(4)
"Illegal gas" means gas which has been produced within the State of Arkansas from any well during any time that that well has produced in excess of the amount allowed by any rule or order of the commission, as distinguished from gas produced within the State of Arkansas from a well not producing in excess of the amount so allowed, which is "legal gas";
(5)
"Illegal oil" means oil which has been produced within the State of Arkansas from any well during any time that that well has produced in excess of the amount allowed by rule or order of the commission, as distinguished from oil produced within the State of Arkansas from a well not producing in excess of the amount so allowed, which is "legal oil";
(6)
"Illegal product" means any product of oil or gas, any part of which was processed or derived, in whole or in part, from illegal oil or illegal gas or from any product thereof as distinguished from "legal product", which is a product processed or derived to no extent from illegal oil or illegal gas;
(7)
"Oil" means crude petroleum oil and other hydrocarbons, regardless of gravity, which are produced at the well in liquid form by ordinary production methods and which are not the result of condensation of gas after it leaves the reservoir;
(8)
"Operator" means the person who has the right as an owner or by agreement with an owner to enter upon the lands of another for the purposes of exploring, drilling, and developing for the production of brine, oil, gas, and all other petroleum hydrocarbons;
(9)
"Owner" means the person who has the right to drill into and to produce from any pool and to appropriate the production either for himself or herself, or for himself or herself and another, or others;
(10)
"Person" means any natural person, corporation, association, partnership, receiver, trustee, guardian, executor, administrator, fiduciary, federal agency, or representative of any kind;
(11)
(A)
"Pool" means an underground reservoir containing a common accumulation of crude petroleum oil or natural gas, or both.
(B)
Each zone of a general structure which is completely separated from any other zone in the structure is covered by the term "pool";
(12)
"Producer" means the owner of wells capable of producing oil or gas, or both;
(13)
"Product" means any commodity made from oil or gas and includes refined crude oil, crude tops, topped crude, processed crude petroleum, residue from crude petroleum, cracking stock, uncracked fuel oil, fuel oil, treated crude oil, residuum, gas oil, casing-head gasoline, natural gas gasoline, naphtha, distillate, gasoline, kerosene, benzene, wash oil, waste oil, blended gasoline, lubricating oil, blends or mixtures of oil with one (1) or more liquid products or by-products derived from oil or gas, and blends or mixtures of two (2) or more liquid products or by-products derived from oil or gas, whether enumerated in this subdivision (13) or not;
(14)
"Tender" means a permit or certificate of clearance for the transportation of oil, gas, or products approved and issued or registered under the authority of the commission; and
(15)
"Waste", in addition to its ordinary meaning, means "physical waste" as that term is generally understood in the oil and gas industry. "Waste" includes:
(A)
The inefficient, excessive, or improper use or dissipation of reservoir energy and the locating, spacing, drilling, equipping, operating, or producing of any oil or gas well or wells in a manner which results, or tends to result, in reducing the quantity of oil or gas ultimately to be recovered from any pool in this state;
(B)
The inefficient storing of oil and the locating, spacing, drilling, equipping, operating, or producing of any oil or gas well or wells in a manner causing, or tending to cause, unnecessary or excessive surface loss or destruction of oil or gas;
(C)
Abuse of the correlative rights and opportunities of each owner of oil and gas in a common reservoir due to nonuniform, disproportionate, and unratable withdrawals causing undue drainage between tracts of land;
(D)
Producing oil or gas in such manner as to cause unnecessary water channeling or coning;
(E)
The operation of any oil well or wells with an inefficient gas-oil ratio;
(F)
The drowning with water of any stratum or part thereof capable of producing oil or gas;
(G)
Underground waste however caused and whether or not defined;
(H)
The creation of unnecessary fire hazards;
(I)
The escape into the open air of gas in excess of the amount that is necessary for the efficient drilling or operation of a well producing both oil and gas;
(J)
The use of gas for the manufacture of carbon black; and
(K)
Permitting gas produced from a gas well to escape into the air.
Amended by Act 2019, No. 315,§ 1235, eff. 7/24/2019.
Amended by Act 2019, No. 315,§ 1234, eff. 7/24/2019.
Acts 1939, No. 105, § 9; 1981, No. 523, § 2; A.S.A. 1947, § 53-109; Acts 2005, No. 137, § 1.