30 U.S.C. § 251 : US Code - Section 251: Leases to claimants of withdrawn lands; terms and conditions; acreage; annual rentals and royalties; fraud of claimants

Search 30 U.S.C. § 251 : US Code - Section 251: Leases to claimants of withdrawn lands; terms and conditions; acreage; annual rentals and royalties; fraud of claimants

Any bona fide occupant or claimant of oil or gas bearing lands in
the Territory of Alaska, who, or whose predecessors in interest,
prior to withdrawal had complied otherwise with the requirements of
the mining laws, but had made no discovery of oil or gas in wells
and who prior to withdrawal had made substantial improvements for
the discovery of oil or gas on or for each location or had prior to
February 25, 1920 expended not less than $250 in improvements on or
for each location shall be entitled, upon relinquishment or
surrender to the United States within one year from February 25,
1920, or within six months after final denial or withdrawal of
application for patent, to a lease or leases, under this chapter
covering such lands, not exceeding five leases in number and not
exceeding an aggregate of one thousand two hundred and eighty acres
in each: Provided, That the annual lease rentals for lands in the
Territory of Alaska not within any known geological structure of a
producing oil or gas field and the royalty payments from production
of oil or gas sold or removed from such lands shall be identical
with those prescribed for such leases covering similar lands in the
States of the United States, except that leases which may issue
pursuant to applications or offers to lease such lands, which
applications or offers were filed prior to and were pending on May
3, 1958, shall require the payment of 25 cents per acre as lease
rental for the first year of such leases; but the aforesaid
exception shall not apply in any way to royalties to be required
under leases which may issue pursuant to offers or applications
filed prior to May 3, 1958.
The Secretary of the Interior shall neither prescribe nor approve
any cooperative or unit plan of development or operation nor any
operating, drilling, or development contract establishing different
royalty or rental rates for Alaska lands than for similar lands
within the States of the United States.
No claimant for a lease who has been guilty of any fraud or who
had knowledge or reasonable grounds to know of any fraud, or who
has not acted honestly and in good faith, shall be entitled to any
of the benefits of this section.