South Carolina Code 48-43-820. Civil penalties; correction of detrimental conditions; liability to third persons
(B) Any person who negligently or willfully permits an oil or gas well to go wild or to get out of control, to cause pollution or waste, or to create other conditions that are detrimental to the property rights of others or the public shall be liable to the department for the expense incurred in correcting the detrimental conditions and the civil penalties imposed by § 48-43-820A and the department is hereby authorized to take whatever action it deems necessary, including operation of the well, to correct the detrimental conditions and charge the owner or producer, or both, of the well for the expenses incurred.
Terms Used In South Carolina Code 48-43-820
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
- Department: means the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. See South Carolina Code 48-43-10
- Gas: means all natural gas and all other fluid hydrocarbons not hereinabove defined as oil, including condensate because it originally was in the gaseous phase in the reservoir. See South Carolina Code 48-43-10
- Illegal Gas: means gas that has been produced from any well within the State in excess of the quantity permitted by any rule, regulation, or order of the department. See South Carolina Code 48-43-10
- Illegal Oil: means oil that has been produced from any well within the State in excess of the quantity permitted by any rule, regulation, or order of the department. See South Carolina Code 48-43-10
- Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
- Oil: means crude petroleum oil and all other hydrocarbons, regardless of gravity, that are produced in liquid form by ordinary production methods, but does not include liquid hydrocarbons that were originally in a gaseous phase in the reservoir. See South Carolina Code 48-43-10
- Owner: means the person who has the right to drill into and produce from a pool and to appropriate the oil or gas that he produces therefrom, either for himself or for himself and others. See South Carolina Code 48-43-10
- Person: means any natural person, corporation, association, partnership, receiver, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary, or other representatives of any kind, and includes any government or any political subdivision or any agency thereof. See South Carolina Code 48-43-10
- Pollution: means the act of emitting pollutants into the air or water or onto the land. See South Carolina Code 48-43-10
- Producer: means the owner of a well or wells capable of producing oil or gas or both. See South Carolina Code 48-43-10
- Product: means any commodity made from oil or gas, and includes refined crude oil, crude tops, topped crude, processed crude, processed crude petroleum, residue from crude petroleum, cracking stock, uncracked fuel oil, fuel oil, treated crude oil, residuum, gas oil, casinghead gasoline, natural gas gasoline, kerosene, benzine, wash oil, waste oil, blended gasoline, lubrication oil, blends or mixtures of oil with one or more liquid products or by-products derived from oil or gas, and blends or mixtures of two or more liquid products or by-products derived from oil or gas, whether herein enumerated or not. See South Carolina Code 48-43-10
- Waste: means and includes:
(1) physical waste, as that term is generally understood in the oil and gas industry;
(2) the inefficient, excessive, or improper use, or the unnecessary dissipation of, reservoir energy;
(3) the inefficient storing of oil and gas;
(4) the locating, drilling, equipping, operating, or producing of any oil or gas well in a manner that causes, or tends to cause, reduction in the quantity of oil or gas ultimately recoverable from a pool under prudent and proper operations, or that causes or tends to cause unnecessary or excessive surface loss or destruction or oil or gas;
(5) the production of oil or gas in excess of
(a) transportation or marketing facilities;
(b) the amount reasonably required to be produced in the proper drilling, completing or testing of the well from which it is produced; or
(c) oil or gas otherwise usefully utilized but gas produced from an oil well or condensate well pending the time when, with reasonable diligence, the gas can be sold or otherwise usefully utilized on terms and conditions that are just and reasonable shall not be considered waste if the production of such gas has been approved by order of the department;
(6) underground or above ground waste in the production or storage of oil, gas, or condensate, however caused, and whether or not defined in other subdivisions hereof. See South Carolina Code 48-43-10
(C) The penalties and liabilities provided in this section shall be recoverable by civil suit filed by the Attorney General in the name and on behalf of the department in the court of common pleas of the county in which the defendant resides or in which any defendant resides, if there be more than one defendant, or in the court of common pleas of any county in which the violation occurred. The payment of any such penalty shall not operate to legalize any illegal oil, illegal gas or illegal product involved in the violation for which the penalty is imposed or relieve a person on whom the penalty is imposed from liability to any other person for damages arising out of such violation.
(D) In addition to any civil and criminal penalties imposed by this chapter, any person who violates any provisions of this chapter, or rules, regulations and orders of the department, shall be liable to all third parties who may incur damage or injury because of such violations.