Alaska Administrative Code
Title 11 - Natural Resources
Part 6 - Lands
Chapter 88 - Practice and Procedure
11 AAC 88.185 - Definitions

(1) "adjacent" means touching or lying in close proximity, as opposed to "contiguous" which requires a common boundary;

(2) "ADL number" means the Alaska Division of Lands number assigned by the department to a casefile;

(3) "associated substances" means all substances except helium produced as an incident of production of oil and gas by ordinary production methods and not defined herein as oil or gas;

(4) "automated clearing house transaction" means an electronic transaction by means of the Automated Clearing House network for the interbank clearing of electronic payments for participating depository financial institutions;

(5) "cash" means a cashier's or certified check, or an electronic fund transfer drawn on any solvent bank in the United States, automated clearing house transaction, postal or telegraphic money order or legal tender of the United States of America, or any combination of these;

(6) "commissioner" means the Commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources;

(7) "cooperative agreement" means an agreement or plan of development and operation for the recovery of oil and gas from any pool, field, or like area or any part thereof in which separate ownership units are independently operated pursuant to the agreement without allocation of production;

(8) "director" means the Director of the Division of Lands or a designee;

(9) "division" means the Division of Lands. Department of Natural Resources;

(10) "filing office" means any place designated by the director as a filing office for applications, payments and filings under 11 AAC 82 - 11 AAC 88;

(11) "gas" means all natural gas, except helium gas, and all hydrocarbons produced at a well not defined herein as oil;

(12) "leasehold location" or "mining leasehold location" means the interests in land subject to a location under AS 38.05.205 before a lease has been issued;

(13) "legal subdivision" means an aliquot part of a section of land according to the public land rectangular survey system, not smaller than one-quarter of one-quarter of one section of land, containing approximately 40 acres; where a section of land contains section lots, "legal subdivision" also means those section lots; "legal subdivision" also means a protracted legal subdivision according to any protracted public land rectangular survey prepared by the division or Bureau of Land Management of the Department of the Interior, and made available to prospective applicants for leases;

(14) "leasehold," "mining lease," or "upland mining lease" means the interests in land subject to a mining lease issued in accordance with AS 38.05.205;

(15) "lessee or permittee of record" means the original lessee or permittee under any lease or permit or, if an assignment has been approved at any time, the latest assignee whose assignment has been approved;

(16) "locatable minerals" means those minerals which, on January 3, 1959, were subject to location under the United States mining laws (30 U.S.C.);

(17) "location" or "mining location" means a location on state-selected land authorized under AS 38.00.275, a mining claim made under AS 38.05.195, a leasehold location made under AS 38.05.205 or a prospecting site location made under AS 38.05.245;

(18) "locator" means the initial person to stake or locate a mining location or the current owner of a mining location;

(19) "mineral" means a naturally occurring substance with a characteristic chemical composition expressed by a chemical formula, including oil and gas;

(20) "notification lessee" means a lessee or agent authorized by the lessees to receive notices on behalf of all lessees from the state in connection with a lease;

(21) "offshore" means tide and submerged lands, that is, those lands lying seaward from the line of mean high tide;

(22) "oil" means crude petroleum oil and other hydrocarbons, regardless of gravity, that are produced in liquid form by ordinary production methods, including liquid hydrocarbons known as distillate or condensate recovered by separation from gas other than at a gas processing plant;

(23) "operating agreement" means an agreement giving the operator the right to carry on operations authorized by a lease or leases and to share in production obtained from the leased lands;

(24) "option" means an option to obtain an assignment of or an operating agreement covering a lease or portion of one;

(25) "order" means a determination made by the director or the commissioner in accordance with authority lawfully vested in them, issued in writing, filed in the permanent files of the division, and made available for inspection by the public;

(26) "participating area" means that part of an oil and gas lease unit area approved as being reasonably known to be underlain by hydrocarbons and known or reasonably estimated through use of geological, geophysical, or engineering data to be capable of producing or contributing to production of hydrocarbons in paying quantities;

(27) "person" includes a natural living being, business, or an association of persons;

(28) "pool" means an underground reservoir containing or appearing to contain a common accumulation of oil or gas or both; each zone of a general structure which is completely separated from any other zone in the structure is a pool;

(29) "primary term" means the initial term of an oil and gas lease and any extension of it;

(30) "qualified to do business in Alaska" means holding the state certificates necessary to lawfully conduct business within the state;

(31) "smallest legal subdivision" means one-quarter of one-quarter of one section of land, containing 40 acres more or less, except where a section contains smaller section lots according to the public land rectangular survey or a protracted public land rectangular survey prepared by the division or by the Bureau of Land Management of the Department of the Interior, and made available to prospective applicants for leases, in which case "smallest legal subdivision" means those smaller section lots; as to unsurveyed land not covered by such a protracted survey, it means a square containing 40 acres, more or less;

(32) "status record" means the basic record maintained by the division to show the status of every tract of land and of leases and applications for leases on them;

(33) "tract" means a parcel offered for competitive lease:

(34) "unit agreement" means an agreement for the recovery of oil and gas from a pool, field or like area, or any part of one, as a single consolidated unit without regard to separate ownerships, and for the allocation of production on a basis as defined in the agreement; "unit agreement" also includes "cooperative agreement" unless the context clearly requires the more restricted meaning;

(35) "unit area" means the land subject to a unit agreement;

(36) "unit operator" means the person, corporation or association designated under a unit agreement to conduct operations in or on a unit as specified in the unit agreement;

(37) "working interest" means the interest held in lands by virtue of a lease under which the owner of the interest is vested with the right to explore for, develop and produce minerals; the right delegated to a unit operator by a unit agreement is not a working interest.

(38) "state-selected land" has the meaning given in AS 38.05.275(b).