Missouri Laws 259.090 – Production — controls and allocations authorized
The council shall determine market demand for each marketing district and shall regulate the amount of production as follows:
(1) The council shall limit the production of oil and gas within each marketing district to that amount which can be produced without waste, and which does not exceed the reasonable market demand.
Terms Used In Missouri Laws 259.090
- Council: the state oil and gas council established by section 259. See Missouri Laws 259.050
- Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
- Gas: all natural gas and all other fluid hydrocarbons which are produced at the wellhead and not hereinbelow defined as oil. See Missouri Laws 259.050
- Oil: crude petroleum oil and other hydrocarbons regardless of gravity which are produced at the wellhead in liquid form and the liquid hydrocarbons known as distillate or condensate recovered or extracted from gas, other than gas produced in association with oil and commonly known as casinghead gas. See Missouri Laws 259.050
- Pool: an underground reservoir containing a common accumulation of oil or gas or both. See Missouri Laws 259.050
- Property: includes real and personal property. See Missouri Laws 1.020
- Reasonable market demand: means the demand for oil or gas for reasonable current requirements for consumption and use within and without the state, together with such quantities as are reasonably necessary for building up or maintaining reasonable working stocks and reasonable reserves of oil or gas or product. See Missouri Laws 259.050
- State: when applied to any of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories, and the words "United States" includes such district and territories. See Missouri Laws 1.020
- Waste: means and includes:
(a) Physical waste, as that term is generally understood in the oil and gas industry, but not including unavoidable or accidental waste. See Missouri Laws 259.050
(2) Whenever the council limits the total amount of oil or gas which may be produced in the state or a marketing district, the council shall allocate or distribute the allowable production among the pools therein on a reasonable basis, giving, where reasonable under the circumstances to each pool with small wells of settled production, an allowable production which prevents the general premature abandonment of such wells in the pool.
(3) Whenever the council limits the total amount of oil or gas which may be produced in any pool in this state to an amount less than that amount which the pool could produce if no restriction was imposed, regardless of whether or not the limitation is imposed in relation to the limitation on the total amount of oil or gas produced in the marketing district wherein the pool is located, the council shall allocate or distribute the allowable production among the several wells or producing properties in the pool on a reasonable basis, preventing or minimizing reasonable avoidable drainage, so that each property will have the opportunity to produce or to receive its just and equitable share, subject to the reasonable necessities for the prevention of waste.
(4) In allocating the market demand for gas as between pools within marketing districts, the council shall give due regard to the fact that gas produced from oil pools is to be regulated in a manner as will protect the reasonable use of its energy for oil production.
(5) The council shall not be required to determine the reasonable market demand applicable to any single pool, except in relation to all other pools within the same marketing district, and in relation to the demand applicable to the marketing district. In allocating allowables to pools, the council may consider, but shall not be bound by, nominations of purchasers to purchase from particular fields, pools, or portions thereof. The council shall allocate the total allowable for the state in such manner as prevents undue discrimination between marketing districts, fields, pools, or portions thereof resulting from selective buying or nomination by purchasers.