A. The commission shall require every person who engages in the drilling, ownership or operation of a well, or the entering or deepening of an abandoned well, to file with the commission, on a form to be determined by the commission, a reasonable bond with good and sufficient security conditioned upon the performance of the duties required by this section and the duties upon abandonment, as approved by the commission, of the well in an amount to be determined by the commission.

Terms Used In Arizona Laws 27-654

  • Commission: means the oil and gas conservation commission. See Arizona Laws 27-651
  • Operator: means any person drilling, maintaining, operating, pumping or in control of any well, and includes the owner, when any well is or has been or is about to be operated or under the direction of the owner. See Arizona Laws 27-651
  • Owner: means and includes the operator when any well is operated or has been operated or is about to be operated by any person other than the owner. See Arizona Laws 27-651
  • Person: means and includes any individual, firm, association, corporation or any other group or combination acting as a unit. See Arizona Laws 27-651
  • Well: means any well drilled in search of geothermal resources or any development well on lands in areas proved to be underlain by one or more formations containing geothermal resources or reasonably presumed to contain geothermal resources or any well drilled for information purposes, or any producing well or reentered abandoned well used for the injection of fluids into the geothermal formation or disposition of fluids into nongeothermal formations, or any well drilled for the purpose of stimulating the heat of a formation or for the creation of heat in a formation by nuclear or any other form of energy. See Arizona Laws 27-651

B. In no case may the bond be less than five thousand dollars for each individual well or less than twenty-five thousand dollars for any number of wells.

C. The bond shall remain in full force and effect until all requirements of the commission have been satisfied or until otherwise released by the commission.

D. The owner or operator is responsible for the full cost of plugging each dry or abandoned well. If the owner or operator fails to properly plug and abandon the well, the commission may:

1. Forfeit the bond and use the money for that purpose.

2. Sue the owner or operator for costs in excess of the amount of the bond and the owner or operator is liable for that amount.

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