RS 30:21

§21. Fees and charges of the secretary; revisions; exceptions; collections; Oil and Gas Regulatory Dedicated Fund Account; creation; amounts; requirements A. The secretary shall periodically review the fees collected by the department, and, in addition to other statutory authorization, may revise such fees pursuant to the rulemaking provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act. B.(1)(a) There shall be an annual fee payable to the department, in a form and schedule prescribed by the department, by oil and gas operators on capable oil wells and capable gas wells based on a tiered system to establish parity on a dollar amount between the wells. The tiered system shall be established annually by rule on capable oil and capable gas production, including nonexempt wells reporting zero production during the annual base period, such that the amount generated does not exceed three million six hundred seventy-five thousand dollars for each fiscal year beginning with Fiscal Year 2015-2016. Incapable oil, stripper oil, incapable gas well gas, and incapable oil well gas shall be exempt from the fee. For the purposes of this Subsection, "capable oil" means crude oil and condensate not classified as incapable oil or stripper oil by the Department of Revenue. "Capable gas" means natural and casing head gas not classified as incapable gas well gas or incapable oil well gas by the Department of Revenue. (b) There shall be an annual fee payable to the department, in a form and schedule prescribed by the department, on Class I wells in an amount not to exceed one million dollars for Fiscal Year 2015-2016 and thereafter. (c) There shall be an annual regulatory fee payable to the department, in a form and schedule prescribed by the department, on Class II wells, Class III wells, storage wells, Type A facilities, and Type B facilities in an amount not to exceed two million one hundred eighty-seven thousand five hundred dollars for Fiscal Year 2015-2016 and thereafter. No fee shall be imposed on a Class II well of an operator who is also an operator of a stripper crude oil well or incapable gas well certified pursuant to R.S. 47:633 by the severance tax division of the Department of Revenue and located in the same field as such Class II well. (d) There shall be an application fee payable to the department, in a form and schedule prescribed by the department, by industries under the jurisdiction of the department. In addition to any other fee that is on the schedule on July 1, 2015, the secretary may collect the following fees: (i) Application for alternate unit well, exception $ 504 to 29-E, exception to 29-B, severance tax relief, downhole combinations, well product reclassification, selective completion, pilot projects, waiver of production test, or critical date order (ii) Application for work permit - minerals $ 75 (iii) Application to amend permit to drill - minerals $ 50 (lease unit well, stripper, incapable, other) (iv) Operator registration $ 105 (v) Annual compliance review fee - class III $ 2,000 solution mining cavern (vi) Annual compliance review fee - class II $ 2,000 hydrocarbon storage and exploration and production waste cavern (vii) Class II carbon dioxide enhanced $ 5,000 recovery project (viii) Community saltwater disposal system initial $ 125 notification (ix) Application for work permit - injection or other $ 125 (x) Work permit to plug and abandon a well utilized $ 500 for naturally occurring radioactive waste disposal (xi) Requests to modify well permit $ 300 (xii) Class V permit waiver or exemption request $ 250 (xiii) Witnessed verification of mechanical $ 250 integrity tests (xiv) Repealed by Acts 2016, No. 277, §2. (xv) Request to transport exploration and $ 150 production waste to commercial facilities or transfer stations (xvi) Repealed by Acts 2016, No. 277, §2. (xvii) Exploration and production waste $ 300 determination (xviii) Repealed by Acts 2016, No. 277, §2. (xix) Commercial facility application exclusive $ 3,000 of an associated well (xx) Repealed by Acts 2016, No. 277, §2. (xxi) Repealed by Acts 2016, No. 277, §2. (xxii) Reuse material applications not associated with $ 400 a commercial facility (e) For the purposes of this Paragraph, exploration and production waste shall not include produced brine, produced water, or salvageable hydrocarbons bound for permitted salvage oil operators. There shall be a monthly fee payable to the department of two cents per barrel of exploration and production waste delivered, as reported on a form prescribed by the department to collect commercial facilities monthly report of waste receipts, from the original generator of the waste to the following facilities: (i) Department-permitted off-site commercial facilities. (ii) Transfer stations permitted by the department for waste transfer to out-of-state treatment or disposal facilities. (iii) Any other legally permitted Louisiana off-site waste storage, treatment, or disposal facilities also approved by the department for the receipt of exploration and production waste. (2)(a) There is hereby established a special statutorily dedicated fund account in the state treasury to be known as the Oil and Gas Regulatory Dedicated Fund Account, hereafter referred to as the "account". After deposit in the Bond Security and Redemption Fund and after a sufficient amount is allocated from that fund to pay all the obligations secured by the full faith and credit of the state that become due and payable within each fiscal year, the treasurer shall pay into the account an amount equal to the monies generated from collection of the fees provided for in this Title, R.S. 40:1749.11 et seq., or Title 47 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950, the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder, any fines and civil penalties or any other provision of law relative to fees, fines, or civil penalties attributable to the department, and fifty percent of any annual assessment paid by an operator who chooses not to plug a well classified as inactive with the remainder being deposited into the Oilfield Site Restoration Fund. (b) Monies deposited into the account shall be categorized as fees and self-generated revenue for the sole purpose of reporting related to the executive budget, supporting documents, and general appropriation bills. The monies credited to the account shall be appropriated by the legislature and dedicated solely to the use of the department for the regulation of the oil and gas industry and other industries under the jurisdiction of the department and shall be used solely for the purposes of that program. Any monies remaining in the account at the end of any fiscal year shall remain with the account and shall not revert to the state general fund. All interest or earnings of the account shall be credited to the account. All fees and self-generated revenue remaining on deposit for the department at the end of any fiscal year shall be deposited into the account. The amount appropriated from the account to the department shall be subject to appropriation by the legislature. (c) The provisions of Subtitle II of Title 47 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950 shall apply to the administration, collection, and enforcement of the fees imposed in this Section, and the penalties provided by that Subtitle shall apply to the person who fails to pay or report the fee. Proceeds from the fee, including any penalties collected in connection with the fee, shall be deposited into the account. C. Nothing contained herein shall authorize the charging of inspection fees for shut-in oil wells or temporarily abandoned oil wells in stripper fields. Acts 1989, No. 227, §1, eff. June 26, 1989; Acts 1991, No. 778, §1, eff. July 1, 1991; Acts 1991, No. 811, §1; Acts 1997, No. 826, §1, eff. July 1, 1997; Acts 1998, 1st Ex. Sess., No. 47, §1, eff. April 24, 1998; Acts 2000, 1st Ex. Sess., No. 88, §1; Acts 2001, No. 260, §1; Acts 2002, 1st Ex. Sess., No. 97, §1, eff. July 1, 2002; Acts 2002, 1st Ex. Sess., No. 105, §1; Acts 2015, No. 362, §1; Acts 2016, No. 277, §§1, 2; Acts 2016, No. 582, §1, eff. June 17, 2016; Acts 2017, No. 218, §1, eff. June 14, 2017; Acts 2021, No. 114, §6, eff. July 1, 2022; Acts 2025, No. 458, §1, eff. Oct. 1, 2025.