Where oil lands are located under the provisions of sections 21, 22 to 24, 26 to 28, 29, 30, 33 to 48, 50 to 52, 71 to 76 of this title and section 661 of title 43 as placer mining claims, the annual assessment labor upon such claims may be done upon any one of a group of claims lying contiguous and owned by the same person or corporation, not exceeding five claims in all, where such labor will tend to the development or to determine the oil-bearing character of such contiguous claims.

In no case shall patent be denied to or for any lands located or claimed prior to March 2, 1911, under the mining laws of the United States containing petroleum, mineral oil, or gas solely because of any transfer or assignment thereof or of any interest or interests therein by the original locator or locators, or any of them, to any qualified persons or person or corporation, prior to discovery of oil or gas therein, but if such claim is in all other respects valid and regular, patent therefor not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres in any one claim shall issue to the holder or holders thereof, as in other cases. The above provisions shall not apply where such lands were at the time of inception of development on or under such claim withdrawn from mineral entry.

Where applications for patents have been or may be offered for any oil or gas land included in an order of withdrawal upon which oil or gas had been discovered, or was being produced prior to March 2, 1911, or upon which drilling operations were in actual progress on October 3, 1910, and oil or gas is thereafter discovered thereon, and where there has been no final determination by the Secretary of the Interior upon such applications for patent, said Secretary, in his discretion, may enter into agreements, under such conditions as he may prescribe with such applicants for patents in possession of such land or any portions thereof, relative to the disposition of the oil or gas produced therefrom or the proceeds thereof, pending final determination of the title thereto by the Secretary of the Interior, or such other disposition of the same as may be authorized by law. Any money which may accrue to the United States under the provisions of sections 103 and 104 of this title from lands within the Naval Petroleum Reserves shall be set aside for the needs of the Navy and deposited in the Treasury to the credit of a fund to be known as the Navy Petroleum Fund, which fund shall be applied to the needs of the Navy as Congress may from time to time direct, by appropriation or otherwise.