§ 216.6 - Definitions.

For purposes of this part:

Agreement means a binding arrangement between two or more parties purporting to the act of agreeing or of coming to a mutual arrangement that is accepted by all parties to a transaction (e.g., communitizations, unitization, gas storage, or compensatory royalty agreements.).

Alaska Native Corporation means a corporation created pursuant to the provisions of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.).

Associate Director means the Associate Director for Minerals Revenue Management of the MMS.

Facility means a structure(s) used to store or process Federal or Indian mineral production prior to or at the point of royalty determination.

Federal lease means a lease concerning minerals owned by the United States and includes a lease where an Alaska Native Corporation receives all or part of the royalties accruing from that lease, and the MMS has not waived administration of that lease.

First purchaser means any entity receiving the lease production in a first transfer for value transaction.

Gas means any fluid, either combustible or noncombustible, which is extracted from a reservoir and which has neither independent shape nor volume, but tends to expand indefinitely; a substance that exists in a gaseous or rarefied state under standard temperature and pressure conditions.

Indian lease means a lease concerning lands or interest in lands of an Indian Tribe or an Indian allottee, his heirs or devisees, held in trust by the United States or which is subject to Federal restriction against alienation, including mineral resources and mineral estates reserved to an Indian Tribe or an Indian allottee, his heirs or devisees thereto in the conveyance of a surface or non-mineral estate, except that such term does not include any lands subject to the provisions of section 3 of the Act of June 28, 1906 (34 Stat. 539).

Lease means any contract, profit-share arrangement, joint venture, permit, or other agreement issued or approved by the United States under a mineral leasing law that authorizes exploration for, extraction of, or removal of oil or gas—or the land area covered by that authorization, whichever is covered by the context.

Lessee means any person to whom the United States, an Indian Tribe, or an Indian allottee, issues a lease, or any person who has been assigned an obligation to make royalty or other payments required by the lease.

Measurement device means a mechanical or electrical device that is used to measure production of oil or gas for sales, transfers, and/or royalty determination.

Mineral leasing law means any Federal law administered by the Secretary authorizing the disposition under lease of oil or gas.

Oil means any fluid hydrocarbon substance other than gas which is extracted in a fluid state from a reservoir and which exists in a fluid state under the existing temperature and pressure conditions of the reservoir. Oil includes liquefiable hydrocarbon substances such as drip gasoline or other natural condensates recovered in a liquid state from gas.

Operator means any person, including a lessee who has control of, or who manages operations on, any oil and gas lease site on Federal (including the OCS) or Indian lands. “Operator” also means any entity engaged in the business of developing, drilling for, producing, transporting, purchasing, selling, or processing oil or gas and/or which has the responsibility of reporting production from a lease or a portion thereof.

Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) has the same meaning as provided in section 2 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, 43 U.S.C. 1331.

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

Raw make means natural gas liquids (NGL's) that are extracted from the wet gas stream at a gas plant (e.g., ethane through natural gasoline) which sometimes is transferred to a fractionation plant for further processing.

Reporter means any reporting entity required to submit a production report or form to the MMS.

Secretary means the Secretary of the Interior or his/her designee.