Collapse to view only § 191. Disposition of moneys received
- § 181. Lands subject to disposition; persons entitled to benefits; reciprocal privileges; helium rights reserved
- § 182. Lands disposed of with reservation of deposits of coal, etc.
- § 183. Cancellation of prospecting permits
- § 184. Limitations on leases held, owned or controlled by persons, associations or corporations
- § 184a. Authorization of States to include in agreements for conservation of oil and gas resources lands acquired from United States
- § 185. Rights-of-way for pipelines through Federal lands
- § 186. Reservation of easements or rights-of-way for working purposes; reservation of right to dispose of surface of lands; determination before offering of lease; easement periods
- § 187. Assignment or subletting of leases; relinquishment of rights under leases; conditions in leases for protection of diverse interests in operation of mines, wells, etc.; State laws not impaired
- § 187a. Oil or gas leases; partial assignments
- § 187b. Oil or gas leases; written relinquishment of rights; release of obligations
- § 188. Failure to comply with provisions of lease
- § 188a. Surrender of leases
- § 189. Rules and regulations; boundary lines; State rights unaffected; taxation
- § 190. Oath; requirement; form; blanks
- § 191. Disposition of moneys received
- § 191a. Late payment charges under Federal mineral leases
- § 191b. Collection of unpaid and underpaid royalties and late payment interest owed by lessees
- § 192. Payment of royalties in oil or gas; sale of such oil or gas
- § 192a. Cancellation or modification of contracts
- § 192b. Application to contracts
- § 192c. Rules and regulations governing issuance of certain leases; disposition of receipts
- § 193. Disposition of deposits of coal, and so forth
- § 193a. Preference right of United States to purchase coal for Army and Navy; price for coal; civil actions; jurisdiction
- § 194. Repealed.
- § 195. Enforcement
- § 196. Cooperative agreements; delegation of authority
Deposits of coal, phosphate, sodium, potassium, oil, oil shale, gilsonite (including all vein-type solid hydrocarbons), or gas, and lands containing such deposits owned by the United States, including those in national forests, but excluding lands acquired under the Appalachian Forest Act, approved March 1, 1911 (36 Stat. 961), and those in incorporated cities, towns, and villages and in national parks and monuments, those acquired under other Acts subsequent to February 25, 1920, and lands within the naval petroleum and oil-shale reserves, except as hereinafter provided, shall be subject to disposition in the form and manner provided by this chapter to citizens of the United States, or to associations of such citizens, or to any corporation organized under the laws of the United States, or of any State or Territory thereof, or in the case of coal, oil, oil shale, or gas, to municipalities. Citizens of another country, the laws, customs, or regulations of which deny similar or like privileges to citizens or corporations of this country, shall not by stock ownership, stock holding, or stock control, own any interest in any lease acquired under the provisions of this chapter.
The term “oil” shall embrace all nongaseous hydrocarbon substances other than those substances leasable as coal, oil shale, or gilsonite (including all vein-type solid hydrocarbons).
The term “combined hydrocarbon lease” shall refer to a lease issued in a special tar sand area pursuant to section 226 of this title after November 16, 1981.
The term “special tar sand area” means (1) an area designated by the Secretary of the Interior’s orders of November 20, 1980 (45 FR 76800–76801) and January 21, 1981 (46 FR 6077–6078) as containing substantial deposits of tar sand.
The United States reserves the ownership of and the right to extract helium from all gas produced from lands leased or otherwise granted under the provisions of this chapter, under such rules and regulations as shall be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior: Provided further, That in the extraction of helium from gas produced from such lands it shall be so extracted as to cause no substantial delay in the delivery of gas produced from the well to the purchaser thereof, and that extraction of helium from gas produced from such lands shall maintain the lease as if the extracted helium were oil and gas.
The provisions of this chapter shall also apply to all deposits of coal, phosphate, sodium, oil, oil shale, gilsonite (including all vein-type solid hydrocarbons), or gas in the lands of the United States, which lands may have been or may be disposed of under laws reserving to the United States such deposits, with the right to prospect for, mine, and remove the same, subject to such conditions as are or may hereafter be provided by such laws reserving such deposits.
The Secretary of the Interior shall reserve and may exercise the authority to cancel any prospecting permit upon failure by the permittee to exercise due diligence in the prosecution of the prospecting work in accordance with the terms and conditions stated in the permit, and shall insert in every such permit issued under the provisions of this chapter appropriate provisions for its cancellation by him.
Notwithstanding the provisions of any applicable grant, deed, patent, exchange, or law of the United States, any State owning lands or interests therein acquired by it from the United States may consent to the operation or development of such lands or interests, or any part thereof, under agreements approved by the Secretary of the Interior made jointly or severally with lessees or permittees of lands or mineral deposits of the United States or others, for the purpose of more properly conserving the oil and gas resources within such State. Such agreements may provide for the cooperative or unit operation or development of part or all of any oil or gas pool, field, or area; for the allocation of production and the sharing of proceeds from the whole or any specified part thereof regardless of the particular tract from which production is obtained or proceeds are derived; and, with the consent of the State, for the modification of the terms and provisions of State leases for lands operated and developed thereunder, including the term of years for which said leases were originally granted, to conform said leases to the terms and provisions of such agreements: Provided, That nothing in this section contained, nor the effectuation of it, shall be construed as in any respect waiving, determining or affecting any right, title, or interest, which otherwise may exist in the United States, and that the making of any agreement, as provided in this section, shall not be construed as an admission as to the title or ownership of the lands included.
Any permit, lease, occupation, or use permitted under this chapter shall reserve to the Secretary of the Interior the right to permit upon such terms as he may determine to be just, for joint or several use, such easements or rights-of-way, including easements in tunnels upon, through, or in the lands leased, occupied, or used as may be necessary or appropriate to the working of the same, or of other lands containing the deposits described in this chapter, and the treatment and shipment of the products thereof by or under authority of the Government, its lessees, or permittees, and for other public purposes. The Secretary of the Interior, in his discretion, in making any lease under this chapter, may reserve to the United States the right to lease, sell, or otherwise dispose of the surface of the lands embraced within such lease under existing law or laws hereafter enacted, insofar as said surface is not necessary for use of the lessee in extracting and removing the deposits therein. If such reservation is made it shall be so determined before the offering of such lease. The said Secretary, during the life of the lease, is authorized to issue such permits for easements herein provided to be reserved.
No lease issued under the authority of this chapter shall be assigned or sublet, except with the consent of the Secretary of the Interior. The lessee may, in the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior, be permitted at any time to make written relinquishment of all rights under such a lease, and upon acceptance thereof be thereby relieved of all future obligations under said lease, and may with like consent surrender any legal subdivision of the area included within the lease. Each lease shall contain provisions for the purpose of insuring the exercise of reasonable diligence, skill, and care in the operation of said property; a provision that such rules for the safety and welfare of the miners and for the prevention of undue waste as may be prescribed by said Secretary shall be observed, including a restriction of the workday to not exceeding eight hours in any one day for underground workers except in cases of emergency; provisions prohibiting the employment of any child under the age of sixteen in any mine below the surface; provisions securing the workmen complete freedom of purchase; provision requiring the payment of wages at least twice a month in lawful money of the United States, and providing proper rules and regulations to insure the fair and just weighing or measurement of the coal mined by each miner, and such other provisions as he may deem necessary to insure the sale of the production of such leased lands to the United States and to the public at reasonable prices, for the protection of the interests of the United States, for the prevention of monopoly, and for the safeguarding of the public welfare. None of such provisions shall be in conflict with the laws of the State in which the leased property is situated.
Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in section 187 of this title, a lessee may at any time make and file in the appropriate land office a written relinquishment of all rights under any oil or gas lease issued under the authority of this chapter or of any legal subdivision of the area included within any such lease. Such relinquishment shall be effective as of the date of its filing, subject to the continued obligation of the lessee and his surety to make payment of all accrued rentals and royalties and to place all wells on the lands to be relinquished in condition for suspension or abandonment in accordance with the applicable lease terms and regulations; thereupon the lessee shall be released of all obligations thereafter accruing under said lease with respect to the lands relinquished, but no such relinquishment shall release such lessee, or his bond, from any liability for breach of any obligation of the lease, other than an obligation to drill, accrued at the date of the relinquishment.
The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to accept the surrender of any lease issued pursuant to any of the provisions of this chapter, or any amendment thereof, where the surrender is filed in the Bureau of Land Management subsequent to the accrual but prior to the payment of the yearly rental due under the lease, upon payment of the accrued rental on a pro rata monthly basis for the portion of the lease year prior to the filing of the surrender. The authority granted to the Secretary of the Interior by this section shall extend only to cases in which he finds that the failure of the lessee to file a timely surrender of the lease prior to the accrual of the rental was not due to a lack of reasonable diligence, but it shall not extend to claims or cases which have been referred to the Department of Justice for purposes of suit.
The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to prescribe necessary and proper rules and regulations and to do any and all things necessary to carry out and accomplish the purposes of this chapter, also to fix and determine the boundary lines of any structure, or oil or gas field, for the purposes of this chapter. Nothing in this chapter shall be construed or held to affect the rights of the States or other local authority to exercise any rights which they may have, including the right to levy and collect taxes upon improvements, output of mines, or other rights, property, or assets of any lessee of the United States.
All statements, representations, or reports required by the Secretary of the Interior under this chapter shall be upon oath, unless otherwise specified by him, and in such form and upon such blanks as the Secretary of the Interior may require.
Beginning in fiscal year 1996 and thereafter, the Secretary shall take appropriate action to collect unpaid and underpaid royalties and late payment interest owed by Federal and Indian mineral lessees and other royalty payors on amounts received in settlement or other resolution of disputes under, and for partial or complete termination of, sales agreements for minerals from Federal and Indian leases.
All royalty accruing to the United States under any oil or gas lease or permit under this chapter on demand of the Secretary of the Interior shall be paid in oil or gas.
Upon granting any oil or gas lease under this chapter, and from time to time thereafter during said lease, the Secretary of the Interior shall, except whenever in his judgment it is desirable to retain the same for the use of the United States, offer for sale for such period as he may determine, upon notice and advertisement on sealed bids or at public auction, all royalty oil and gas accruing or reserved to the United States under such lease. Such advertisement and sale shall reserve to the Secretary of the Interior the right to reject all bids whenever within his judgment the interest of the United States demands; and in cases where no satisfactory bid is received or where the accepted bidder fails to complete the purchase, or where the Secretary of the Interior shall determine that it is unwise in the public interest to accept the offer of the highest bidder, the Secretary of the Interior, within his discretion, may readvertise such royalty for sale, or sell at private sale at not less than the market price for such period, or accept the value thereof from the lessee: Provided, That inasmuch as the public interest will be served by the sale of royalty oil to refineries not having their own source of supply for crude oil, the Secretary of the Interior, when he determines that sufficient supplies of crude oil are not available in the open market to such refineries, is authorized and directed to grant preference to such refineries in the sale of oil under the provisions of this section, for processing or use in such refineries and not for resale in kind, and in so doing may sell to such refineries at private sale at not less than the market price any royalty oil accruing or reserved to the United States under leases issued pursuant to this chapter: Provided further, That in selling such royalty oil the Secretary of the Interior may at his discretion prorate such oil among such refineries in the area in which the oil is produced: Provided, however, That pending the making of a permanent contract for the sale of any royalty, oil or gas as herein provided, the Secretary of the Interior may sell the current product at private sale, at not less than the market price: And provided further, That any royalty, oil, or gas may be sold at not less than the market price at private sale to any department or agency of the United States.
The provisions of sections 192a to 192c of this title shall apply to all existing contracts for the purchase of Government royalty oil entered into after July 13, 1946, and prior to September 1, 1949, irrespective of whether a determination of preference status was made in connection with the award of such contracts, but shall not apply to any such contract which subsequent to its award has been transferred, through the acquisition of stock interests or other transactions, to the ownership or control of a refinery ineligible for a preference under section 192 of this title, and the regulations in force thereunder at the time of such transfer.
The Secretary of the Interior is authorized under general rules and regulations to be prescribed by him to issue leases or permits for the exploration, development, and utilization of the mineral deposits, other than those subject to the provisions of chapter 7 of this title, in those lands added to the Shasta National Forest by the Act of March 19, 1948 (Public Law 449, Eightieth Congress), which were acquired with funds of the United States or lands received in exchange therefor: Provided, That any permit or lease of such deposits in lands administered by the Secretary of Agriculture shall be issued only with his consent and subject to such conditions as he may prescribe to insure the adequate utilization of the lands for the purposes set forth in the Act of March 19, 1948: And provided further, That all receipts derived from leases or permits issued under the authority of sections 192a to 192c of this title shall be paid into the same funds or accounts in the Treasury and shall be distributed in the same manner as prescribed for other receipts from the lands affected by the lease or permit, the intention of this provision being that sections 192a to 192c of this title shall not affect the distribution of receipts pursuant to legislation applicable to such lands.
The deposits of coal, phosphate, sodium, potassium, oil, oil shale, and gas, herein referred to, in lands valuable for such minerals, including lands and deposits in Lander, Wyoming, coal entries numbered 18 to 49, inclusive, shall be subject to disposition only in the form and manner provided in this chapter, except as provided in sections 1716 and 1719 of title 43, and except as to valid claims existent on February 25, 1920, and thereafter maintained in compliance with the laws under which initiated, which claims may be perfected under such laws, including discovery.
The United States shall, at all times, have the preference right to purchase so much of the product of any mine or mines opened upon the lands sold under the provisions of this Act, as may be necessary for the use of the Army and Navy, and at such reasonable and remunerative price as may be fixed by the President; but the producers of any coal so purchased who may be dissatisfied with the price thus fixed shall have the right to prosecute suits against the United States in the United States Court of Federal Claims for the recovery of any additional sum or sums they may claim as justly due upon such purchase.