A.  These taxes shall be paid by the owner or proportionately by the owners thereof at the time of the severance and become due and exigible monthly, as herein provided; they shall operate as a first lien and privilege on the natural resources which lien and privilege shall follow the natural resources into the hands of third persons whether in good or bad faith, and whether the same be found in a manufactured or unmanufactured state.  In addition, oil and gas leases, interests and minerals, mineral rights, royalty interests, timber contracts, and rights of any kind to the ownership of any natural resource severed from the soil or water, shall be subject to seizure and sale for the payment of the tax levied in this Part in preference to all other claims, liens, and privileges.  

B.  These taxes shall not be due or owed by any political subdivision of the state if the natural resource severed was owned and severed by that political subdivision for its own use.  

Acts 1988, No. 594, §1, eff. July 1, 1988.