Carbon dioxide property rights - Obligations relieved - Jurisdiction.

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A. Unless otherwise expressly provided by a contract, bill of sale, deed, mortgage, deed of trust, or other legally binding document or by other law, carbon dioxide injected into a CO2 sequestration facility is considered to be the personal property of the facility owner.

B. Absent a final judgment of willful abandonment rendered by a court of competent jurisdiction, or a regulatory determination of willful abandonment, carbon dioxide injected into a CO2 sequestration facility is not considered to be the property of the owner of the surface or mineral estate in the land encompassing the geographic boundary of the CO2 sequestration facility, or any person claiming under the owner of the surface or mineral estate.

C. The facility operator, with permission of the facility owner, may produce, take, extract or reduce to possession any carbon dioxide injected, stored or sequestered in a CO2 sequestration facility. In the event an operator informs the Commission that it intends to conduct enhanced oil or gas recovery operations on a compulsory unit formed pursuant to Section 287.1 et seq. of Title 52 of the Oklahoma statutes, or its predecessor unitization act, then during the time that such unit is in operation, such operator shall be relieved of any obligation to either:

1. Plug and abandon any injection or production well within such unit that is intended to be used in such enhanced oil or gas recovery operations, unless required by the Commission pursuant to Section 53 of Title 17 of the Oklahoma Statutes; or

2. Remove any surface equipment that is associated with any such well and intended to be used in such enhanced oil or gas recovery operations, or both.

D. The Agency having jurisdiction over the injection of carbon dioxide under this act shall also have jurisdiction over a facility operator that produces, takes, extracts or reduces to possession any injected, stored or sequestered carbon dioxide in a CO2 sequestration facility.

Added by Laws 2009, c. 429, § 5, emerg. eff. June 1, 2009.


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