Whenever used in this article, the following words and terms shall have the definition and meaning ascribed to them in this section, unless the intention to give a more limited meaning is disclosed by the context:
"Tax commission" or "department" means the Department of Revenue of the State of Mississippi.
"Commissioner" means the Commissioner of Revenue of the Department of Revenue.
"Annual" means the calendar year or the taxpayer's fiscal year when permission is obtained from the commissioner to use a fiscal year as a tax period in lieu of a calendar year.
"Value" means the sale price, or market value, at the mouth of the well. If the gas is exchanged for something other than cash, or if there is no sale at the time of severance, or if the relation between the buyer and the seller is such that the consideration paid, if any, is not indicative of the true value or market price, then the commissioner shall determine the value of the gas subject to tax, considering the sale price for cash of gas of like quality in the same or nearest gas-producing field.
"Taxpayer" means any person liable for the tax imposed by this article.
"Gas" means natural and casinghead gas and any gas or vapor taken from below the surface of the soil or water in this state, regardless of whether produced from a gas well or from a well also productive of oil or any other product; provided, however, the term "gas" shall not include carbon dioxide.
"Casinghead gas" means any gas or vapor indigenous to an oil stratum and produced from such stratum with oil.
"Severed" means the extraction or withdrawing by any means whatsoever, from below the surface of the soil or water, of any gas.
"Person" means any natural person, firm, copartnership, joint venture, association, corporation, estate, trust, or any other group, or combination acting as a unit, and the plural as well as the singular number.
"Producer" means any person owning, controlling, managing or leasing any oil or gas property, or oil or gas well, and any person who produces in any manner any gas by taking it from the earth or water in this state, and shall include any person owning any royalty or other interest in any gas or its value, whether produced by him, or by some other person on his behalf, either by lease contract or otherwise.
"Engaging in business" means any act or acts engaged in (personal or corporate) by producers, or parties at interest, the result of which gas is severed from the soil or water, for storage, transport or manufacture, or by which there is an exchange of money, or goods, or thing of value, for gas which has been or is in process of being severed from the soil or water.
"Production" means the total gross amount of gas produced, including all royalty or other interest; that is, the amount for the purpose of the tax imposed by this article shall be measured or determined by meter readings showing one hundred percent (100%) of the full volume expressed in cubic feet at a standard base and flowing temperature of sixty (60) degrees Fahrenheit and at the absolute pressure at which the gas is sold and purchased; correction to be made for pressure according to Boyle's law, and for specific gravity according to the gravity at which the gas is sold and purchased or if not so specified, according to test made by the balance method.
"Gathering system" means the pipelines, compressors, pumps, regulators, separators, dehydrators, meters, metering installations and all other property used in gathering gas from the well from which it is produced if such properties are owned by other than the operator, and all such properties, if owned by the operator, beyond the first metering installation that is nearest the well.
"Discovery well" means any well producing gas from a single pool in which a well has not been previously produced in paying quantities after testing.
"Development wells" means all gas-producing wells other than discovery wells and replacement wells.
"Replacement well" means a well drilled on a drilling and/or production unit to replace another well which is drilled in the same unit and completed in the same pool.
"Three-dimensional seismic" means data which is regularly organized in three (3) orthogonal directions and thus suitable for interpretation with a three-dimensional software package on an interactive work station.
"Two-year inactive well" means any oil or gas well certified by the State Oil and Gas Board as having not produced oil or gas in more than a total of thirty (30) days during a twelve-consecutive-month period in the two (2) years before the date of certification.
"Horizontally drilled well" means a well in which the deviation of the borehole is at least eighty degrees (80°) from vertical so that the borehole penetrates a productive formation in a manner parallel to the formation and in which there is at least one thousand (1,000) feet of lateral penetration through productive reservoirs.
"Horizontally drilled recompletion well" means an existing well in which the deviation of the borehole is at least eighty degrees (80°) from vertical so that the borehole penetrates a productive formation in a manner parallel to the formation and in which there is at least one thousand (1,000) feet of lateral penetration through productive reservoirs.