Agreements for cooperative development and operation under leases by public officers
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The state mineral lease commission, the county boards of supervisors, the mayors and boards of aldermen, the mayor and councilmen, the trustees of agricultural high schools and junior colleges, the trustees of any common school districts, consolidated school districts, special consolidated school districts and separate school districts, and all other state boards, state officers, state agents, and the boards and officers of all political subdivisions of the State of Mississippi, who manage and control mineral and royalty interests, and are authorized by law to execute oil, gas or mineral leases thereon, are hereby authorized and empowered to execute, on behalf of the state or of such political, municipal, or other subdivision or agency thereof, agreements covering any lease or leases now in effect or which may hereafter be granted, and the mineral and royalty interests thereunder, for establishing and carrying out the co-operative development and operation of common accumulations of oil and gas, or both, in all or any portion of a field or area which appears from geological or other data to contain such common accumulations of oil or gas, or both, including the right and power to pool, consolidate and unitize the land covered by any lease or leases, now in effect or which may hereafter be granted, in its entirety or as to any stratum or strata or any portion or portions thereof, with other lands and leases in the immediate vicinity thereof, for the purpose of joint development and operation of the entire consolidated premises as a unit. Such agreements include, but are not limited to, all types of secondary recovery methods and operations, and operations known as cycling, recycling, pressure maintenance, repressuring, and water flooding, and the storage, processing and marketing of gas and all by-products of such operations.
When any mineral or royalty interest belonging to the state, or to any political subdivision or agency thereof, is included within the provisions of such unitization or other agreement, as authorized in subsection (1) hereof, the oil, gas and mineral lease on such interest shall be considered to be amended thereby to conform to such agreement, and such lease shall not terminate as long as the agreement continues in force. No such agreement shall provide for the payment of royalty on any basis which is less favorable to the state, or any such subdivision thereof, than the basis on which royalty is computed to other royalty owners.
The agreements herein authorized as to field-wide unitization shall not become effective until approved by the state oil and gas board by an order duly entered on the minutes of said board, and when so approved shall become fully valid and binding.
The provisions of this section shall be cumulative of other existing laws not in conflict herewith.