§ 3162.7-4 Royalty rates on oil; sliding and step-scale leases (public land only).

Sliding- and step-scale royalties are based on the average daily production per well. The authorized officer shall specify which wells on a leasehold are commercially productive, including in that category all wells, whether produced or not, for which the annual value of permissible production would be greater than the estimated reasonable annual lifting cost, but only wells that yield a commercial volume of production during at least part of the month shall be considered in ascertaining the average daily production per well. The average daily production per well for a lease is computed on the basis of a 28-, 29-, 30-, or 31-day month (as the case may be), the number of wells on the leasehold counted as producing, and the gross production from the leasehold. The authorized officer will determine which commercially productive wells shall be considered each month as producing wells for the purpose of computing royalty in accordance with the following rules, and in the authorized officer's discretion may count as producing any commercially productive well shut in for conservation purposes. (a) For a previously producing leasehold, count as producing for every day of the month each previously producing well that produced 15 days or more during the month, and disregard wells that produced less than 15 days during the month. (b) Wells approved by the authorized officer as input wells shall be counted as producing wells for the entire month if so used 15 days or more during the month and shall be disregarded if so used less than 15 days during the month. (c) When the initial production of a leasehold is made during the calendar month, compute royalty on the basis of producing well days. (d) When a new well is completed for production on a previously producing leasehold and produces for 10 days or more during the calendar month in which it is brought in, count such new wells as producing every day of the month in arriving at the number of producing well days. Do not count any new well that produces for less than 10 days during the calendar month. (e) Consider “head wells” that make their best production by intermittent pumping or flowing as producing every day of the month, provided they are regularly operated in this manner with approval of the authorized officer. (f) For previously producing leaseholds on which no wells produced for 15 days or more, compute royalty on the basis of actual producing well days. (g) For previously producing leaseholds on which no wells were productive during the calendar month but from which oil was shipped, compute royalty at the same royalty percentage as that of the last preceding calendar month in which production and shipments were normal. (h) Rules for special cases not subject to definition, such as those arising from averaging the production from two distinct sands or horizons when the production of one sand or horizon is relatively insignificant compared to that of the other, shall be made by the authorized officer as need arises. (i)(1) In the following summary of operations on a typical leasehold for the month of June, the wells considered for the purpose of computing royalty on the entire production of the property for the months are indicated. (2) In this example, there are eight wells on the leasehold, but wells No. 4, 6, and 8 are not counted in computing royalties. Wells No. 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7 are counted as producing for 30 days. The average production per well per day is determined by dividing the total production of the leasehold for the month (including the oil produced by wells 4 and 8) by 5 (the number of wells counted as producing), and dividing the quotient thus obtained by the number of days in the month.