A. In each month, each royalty interest owner shall share in all proceeds derived from the sale of gas production from a well to the extent of such owner's royalty interest in that well without regard to the identity of the producing owners during that period.
B. Each producing owner shall pay or cause to be paid to the operator the royalty share of its gas sales proceeds, valued according to such producing owner's lease terms or Corporation Commission forced pooling order, from all gas produced from the well by such owner during any month. The operator shall thereupon pay or cause to be paid such royalty proceeds to each royalty interest owner in the well in accordance with the proportionate royalty share owned by each royalty interest owner. The payment of such proceeds shall be accompanied by the information set out in Section 12 of this act.
C. The operator shall act solely in a ministerial capacity when performing functions on behalf of others pursuant to this act. The operator shall have discharged its duties to pay royalty proceeds under this act when it remits to the royalty interest owner such royalty proceeds that the operator has received from an owner pursuant to this act. In the absence of a division order signed by a royalty interest owner, an operator in distributing or causing to be distributed the royalty proceeds on gas production to that royalty interest owner shall be entitled to rely on royalty ownership and remittance information provided by the working interest owner burdened by such royalty interest. Working interest owners shall be solely liable for mispayments caused by their errors in or omissions of royalty ownership and remittance information on the royalty interests burdening them. When collecting and disbursing royalty funds and reporting pursuant to Section 12 of this act, the operator shall be entitled to rely on information provided to it by or on behalf of another producing owner.
D. As an alternative to the royalty disbursement procedure set forth in subsection B of this section, a producing owner shall have the right to pay or cause to be paid the royalty share of its gas sales from gas produced by such owner during any month directly to all royalty interest owners according to their proportionate royalty shares in such well, contingent upon the following:
1. Such producing owner shall be solely liable for all errors in and omissions of payment that it makes of royalty proceeds;
2. Such producing owner shall make written report to the operator within thirty (30) days of the date of such payment of all information relating to such payments, including the information specified by Section 12 of this act;
3. Such producing owner shall give to the operator not less than sixty (60) days' written notice prior to initiating or terminating this alternate royalty disbursement procedure; provided, however, any owner terminating this alternate royalty disbursement procedure may not reinitiate such procedure for twelve (12) months from the effective date of such termination;
4. Such producing owner shall solely bear all additional costs incurred by the operator or itself because of its initiation, utilization or termination of this alternative royalty payment procedure; and
5. Such producing owner shall provide or cause to be provided to the royalty interest owners for each month such producing owner's proportionate production interest, and the information required under Section 12 of this act.
Added by Laws 1992, c. 190, § 4, eff. July 1, 1993.