Any county, township, school district, city or town that now owns or may hereafter acquire any land under control of the board of county commissioners, board of town trustees, directors of school districts, boards of education or the governing body of any city acting by and through its duly constituted officers is hereby authorized and empowered to enter, from time to time, into valid oil and gas mining lease or leases of such land to any person, firm, association, or corporation for oil and gas development for a primary term not to exceed ten (10) years and as long thereafter as oil or gas is or can be produced, and any such oil and gas lease may provide that the lessee therein shall have the right and power to consolidate the land covered by said lease with other adjoining land for the purpose of joint development and operation of the entire consolidated premises as a unit, in which event, the lessor in such lease shall share in the royalty on oil and gas produced from said consolidated tract in the proportion that the area of the land covered by such lease bears to the total area of said consolidated tract, or for the purpose of constructing permanent improvements thereon for a term not to exceed ten (10) years. This law does not apply to agricultural purposes.
Added by Laws 1943, p. 160, § 1, emerg. eff. April 1, 1943. Renumbered from § 405 of this title by Laws 2010, c. 41, § 133, emerg. eff. April 2, 2010.