As used in the Oil and Gas Products Lien Act:

A. "commission" means the oil and gas accounting commission [oil and gas accounting division of the taxation and revenue department];

B. "product" or "products" means severed oil, natural gas, liquid hydrocarbons, individually or in any combination thereof;

C. "severed" means the taking, extraction or production from the soil of any product in any manner;

D. "production unit" means a unit of property designated by the commission from which products of common ownership are severed;

E. "person" means any individual, executor, administrator, estate, agent, trust, trustee, institution, receiver, business trust, firm, corporation, partnership, cooperative, joint venture, governmental entity or agency, association or any other group or combination acting as a unit;

F. "interest owner" means a person owning an entire or fractional interest of any kind or nature in the products at the time they are severed from a production unit, or a person who has a right, either express or implied, to receive a monetary payment determined by the value of the products;

G. "operator" means any person engaged in the severance of products from a production unit for himself, for himself and other persons or for other persons;

H. "first purchaser" means the first person who takes, receives or purchases products from an interest owner at or after the time the products are severed from a production unit; and

I. "purchaser" means a person who takes, receives or purchases products from a first purchaser or another person other than an interest owner.

History: 1953 Comp., § 61-10-2, enacted by Laws 1973, ch. 100, § 2.

Bracketed material. — The bracketed material was inserted by the compiler and is not part of the law.

Laws 1977, ch. 249, §§ 5, 12, abolished the oil and gas accounting commission and transferred employees, appropriations, property, equipment, supplies, money and contracts to the oil and gas accounting division of the taxation and revenue department.