California Public Resources Code ARTICLE 5.5 - Subsidence

• Section 3315.
  It is hereby found and determined:(a) That the people of the State of California have a direct and primary interest in arresting and ameliorating the subsidence...
• Section 3316.
  Unless the context otherwise requires, the general provisions and definitions contained in this chapter govern the construction of this article.(Added by Stats. 1958, 1st Ex....
• Section 3316.1.
  As used in this article, “person” means any natural person, corporation, association, partnership, limited liability company, joint venture, receiver, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary or...
• Section 3316.2.
  “Pool” means an underground reservoir containing, or appearing at the time of determination to contain, a common accumulation of crude petroleum oil or natural gas...
• Section 3316.3.
  “Field” means the same general surface area which is underlaid or reasonably appears to be underlaid by one or more pools.(Added by Stats. 1958, 1st...
• Section 3316.4.
  “Repressuring operations” means gas injection operations, water injection operations, water flooding operations, or any combination thereof, or any other operations intended primarily to arrest or...
• Section 3316.5.
  “Subsidence” means sinking, lowering, collapsing, compaction or other movement of the land whether covered by water or not.(Added by Stats. 1958, 1st Ex. Sess., Ch.
• Section 3316.6.
  “Unit area” means all or part of a pool or pools included within the area embraced by a unit created pursuant to an order of...
• Section 3316.7.
  “Unit production” means all oil, gas and other hydrocarbon substances produced from a unit area from the effective date of the order of the supervisor...
• Section 3316.8.
  “Fieldwide repressuring plan” means a plan based upon a competent engineering study or studies, prepared by a petroleum engineer licensed by the State, of all...
• Section 3316.9.
  “Unit agreement” means and includes, in addition to the unit agreement, any unit operating agreement, consent agreement and other agreement entered into in connection with...
• Section 3316.10.a.
  “Increased production” means that portion of the oil or gas produced from all wells bottomed within a unit area, or within any other area where...
• Section 3316.11.
  “Working interest” means an interest held in lands by virtue of fee title, including lands held in trust, a lease, operating agreement or otherwise, under...
• Section 3316.12.
  “Working interest owner” means a person owning a working interest.(Added by Stats. 1958, 1st Ex. Sess., Ch. 73.)
• Section 3316.13.
  “Royalty interest” means a right to or interest in oil and gas produced from any lands or in the proceeds of the first sale thereof...
• Section 3316.14.
  “Royalty interest owner” means a person owning a royalty interest.(Added by Stats. 1958, 1st Ex. Sess., Ch. 73.)
• Section 3316.15.
  “Unit operator” means the person or persons designated by the unit agreement or in accordance with subdivisions (g) and (j) of Section 3322 as operator...
• Section 3316.16.
  “Land” means both surface and mineral rights.(Added by Stats. 1958, 1st Ex. Sess., Ch. 73.)
• Section 3317.
  This article applies only to lands, referred to in Section 3315, overlying or immediately adjacent to a producing pool or pools, when such lands are...
• Section 3318.
  An order of the supervisor which involves tide or submerged lands which may have been granted to any city, county, or city and county, or...
• Section 3319.
  (a) The supervisor, upon the supervisor’s own motion, may, or shall, upon the application of any city, county, or city and county, any part of which...
• Section 3319.1.
  Prior to the adoption of a fieldwide repressuring plan and general specifications of the work to be done thereunder, as provided in Section 3319, the...
• Section 3320.
  (a) The policy of conducting voluntary repressuring operations in a pool or pools, or portions thereof, in order to arrest or ameliorate subsidence, or for any...
• Section 3320.1.
  (a) An agreement for the management, development and operation of two or more tracts in a pool or pools, or portions thereof, in a field as...
• Section 3320.2.
  If the supervisor determines that sufficient of the working interest owners and royalty interest owners to make repressuring operations feasible in any pool or pools,...
• Section 3320.3.
  In determining, as required by Section 3320.2, whether the estimated cost of initiating and conducting such repressuring operations will exceed the estimated value of the...
• Section 3320.4.
  In order to encourage the initiation and conduct of repressuring operations with the greatest possible speed in a subsidence area, the State, or any city,...
• Section 3320.5.
  No working or royalty interest owner shall be liable for any loss or damage resulting from repressuring or other operations connected with the production of...
• Section 3321.
  (a) Subject to the limitations specified in this article, the supervisor shall have the power to issue a compulsory unit order upon the petition of a...
• Section 3322.
  An order of the supervisor requiring unit operation, pursuant to Section 3321, may include lands owned by any person as defined in Section 3316.1, and...
• Section 3322.1.
  No order of the supervisor creating a unit and prescribing the plan of unitization applicable thereto shall become effective unless and until the plan of...
• Section 3323.
  Notice of the time and place of any hearing to be held by the supervisor shall be given by publication in a newspaper of general...
• Section 3324.
  At hearings all persons interested are entitled to be heard and present evidence, both oral and written. All such persons shall be sworn, and a...
• Section 3325.
  The supervisor shall make and enforce all rules and regulations necessary or proper to accomplish the purposes of this article or to administer or enforce...
• Section 3326.
  An order requiring unit operation may be amended for good cause by a subsequent order entered by the supervisor, except that no such order or...
• Section 3327.
  Subject to the limitations in this article governing the creation of the unit previously established, the supervisor, by entry of a new order after a...
• Section 3328.
  (a) The portion of unit production allocated to a separately owned tract shall be deemed, for all purposes, to have been actually produced from such tract,...
• Section 3329.
  The unit operator shall be authorized on behalf of and for the account of all the respective owners or possessors of the mineral rights within...
• Section 3330.
  When unit expenses incurred by a unit operator on behalf of the unit have not been paid, the unit operator may, in order to secure...
• Section 3331.
  Any order issued by the supervisor pursuant to this article, from its effective date, shall be binding upon each person owning or claiming any legal...
• Section 3332.
  Within 30 days after the written notice of the entry of a final order of the supervisor, or within such further time as the supervisor...
• Section 3333.
  (a) A final order of the supervisor shall be subject to judicial review by filing a petition for a writ of mandate in accordance with the...
• Section 3334.
  The pendency of actions before the superior court or proceedings for review before any other court of competent jurisdiction of itself shall not stay or...
• Section 3335.
  If an action for judicial review has not been commenced within the time prescribed for such action, or, if filed, the time within which to...
• Section 3336.
  The supervisor upon his own motion may, or shall upon the application of any interested person, hold a public hearing for the purpose of determining...
• Section 3337.
  The division shall exercise surveillance over all repressuring operations in the state.(Repealed and added by Stats. 1975, Ch. 1049.)
• Section 3341.
  At the termination of oil and gas production from a unit area established or approved pursuant to this article and the abandonment of attempts to...
• Section 3342.
  To the extent necessary to conform to the provisions and requirements of this article, and to any order of unitization or other order, rule or...
• Section 3343.
  (a) Any person who willfully violates any provision of this article or any rule, regulation or order of the supervisor, shall be subject to a penalty...
• Section 3344.
  (a) Whenever it appears that any person is violating or threatening to violate any provision of this article, or any rule, regulation or order of the...
• Section 3345.
  No finding or determination made by the supervisor under the provisions of this article or by any court in proceedings involving the enforcement or review...
• Section 3346.
  The provisions of this article shall supersede any conflicting provisions contained in any legislative grant of tide and submerged lands, or in any law amendatory...
• Section 3347.
  If any section, subsection, subdivision, sentence or clause of this article is adjudged to be unconstitutional or invalid, such adjudication shall not affect the validity...

Last modified: October 22, 2018