Terms Used In Missouri Laws > Chapter 259 - Oil and Gas Production

• Advice and consent: Under the Constitution, presidential nominations for executive and judicial posts take effect only when confirmed by the Senate, and international treaties become effective only when the Senate approves them by a two-thirds vote.
• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Certificate of clearance: means a permit prescribed by the council for the transportation or the delivery of oil or gas or product and issued or registered in accordance with the rule, regulation, or order requiring such permit. See Missouri Laws 259.050
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Concurrent resolution: A legislative measure, designated "S. Con. Res." and numbered consecutively upon introduction, generally employed to address the sentiments of both chambers, to deal with issues or matters affecting both houses, such as a concurrent budget resolution, or to create a temporary joint committee. Concurrent resolutions are not submitted to the President/Governor and thus do not have the force of law.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Council: the state oil and gas council established by section 259. See Missouri Laws 259.050
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: the department of natural resources. See Missouri Laws 259.050
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Field: the general area underlaid by one or more pools. See Missouri Laws 259.050
• following: when used by way of reference to any section of the statutes, mean the section next preceding or next following that in which the reference is made, unless some other section is expressly designated in the reference. See Missouri Laws 1.020
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Gas: all natural gas and all other fluid hydrocarbons which are produced at the wellhead and not hereinbelow defined as oil. See Missouri Laws 259.050
• Illegal gas: means gas which has been produced from any well within this state in excess of the quantity permitted by any rule, regulation, or order of the council. See Missouri Laws 259.050
• Illegal oil: means oil which has been produced from any well within the state in excess of the quantity permitted by any rule, regulation, or order of the council. See Missouri Laws 259.050
• Illegal product: means any product derived in whole or in part from illegal oil or illegal gas. See Missouri Laws 259.050
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Joint committee: Committees including membership from both houses of teh legislature. Joint committees are usually established with narrow jurisdictions and normally lack authority to report legislation.
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Noncommercial gas well: a gas well drilled for the sole purpose of furnishing gas for private domestic consumption by the owner and not for resale or trade. See Missouri Laws 259.050
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Oil: crude petroleum oil and other hydrocarbons regardless of gravity which are produced at the wellhead in liquid form and the liquid hydrocarbons known as distillate or condensate recovered or extracted from gas, other than gas produced in association with oil and commonly known as casinghead gas. See Missouri Laws 259.050
• Owner: the person who has the right to drill into and produce from a pool and to appropriate the oil or gas he produced therefrom either for himself or others or for himself and others. See Missouri Laws 259.050
• person: may extend and be applied to bodies politic and corporate, and to partnerships and other unincorporated associations. See Missouri Laws 1.020
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Pool: an underground reservoir containing a common accumulation of oil or gas or both. See Missouri Laws 259.050
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Product: any commodity made from oil or gas and includes refined crude oil, crude tops, topped crude, processed crude, processed crude petroleum, residue from crude petroleum, cracking stock, uncracked fuel oil, fuel oil, treated crude oil, residuum, gas oil, casinghead gasoline, natural-gas gasoline, kerosene, benzene, wash oil, waste oil, blended gasoline, lubricating oil, blends or mixtures of oil with one or more liquid products or by-products derived from oil or gas, and blends or mixtures of two or more liquid products or by-products derived from oil or gas whether herein enumerated or not. See Missouri Laws 259.050
• Property: includes real and personal property. See Missouri Laws 1.020
• Reasonable market demand: means the demand for oil or gas for reasonable current requirements for consumption and use within and without the state, together with such quantities as are reasonably necessary for building up or maintaining reasonable working stocks and reasonable reserves of oil or gas or product. See Missouri Laws 259.050
• State: when applied to any of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories, and the words "United States" includes such district and territories. See Missouri Laws 1.020
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
• Waste: means and includes:

  (a) Physical waste, as that term is generally understood in the oil and gas industry, but not including unavoidable or accidental waste. See Missouri Laws 259.050

• Well: any hole drilled in the earth for or in connection with the exploration, discovery, or recovery of oil or gas, or for or in connection with the underground storage of gas in natural formation, or for or in connection with the disposal of salt water, nonusable gas or other waste accompanying the production of oil or gas. See Missouri Laws 259.050