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15-74-603. Action for nonpayment of proceeds.
Arkansas Code — all titles (historical 2020) · legal_authorities
15-74-603. Action for nonpayment of proceeds.
(a) Any court of competent jurisdiction of the county in which the oil or gas well is located shall have jurisdiction over all proceedings brought pursuant to this subchapter.
(b) If persons legally entitled to the proceeds seek relief for the failure of the purchaser to make timely payment of proceeds from the sale of oil or gas or interest thereon as required in §§ 15-74-601 and 15-74-602, the first purchaser or the owner of the right to produce under an oil or gas lease or force pooling order shall be furnished with written notice of the failure as a prerequisite to commencing judicial action for the nonpayment.
(c) The first purchaser shall have thirty (30) days after receipt of the required notice within which to pay proceeds or to respond in writing with a reasonable basis for nonpayment.
(d) If the court is satisfied that payments have not been willfully withheld without just cause or through bad faith, the penalty provisions of § 15-74-602 shall not apply to the withholding of the payments.
(e) In the event of willful nonpayment, or in the event the court finds there was a complete absence of a justiciable issue of either law or fact raised by the losing party or his or her attorney, the court shall award an attorney's fee in an amount not to exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000) or ten percent (10%) of the amount in controversy, whichever is less, to the prevailing party unless a voluntary dismissal is filed, or the pleadings are amended as to any nonjusticiable issue within a reasonable time after the attorney or party filing the dismissal or the amended pleadings knew, or reasonably should have known, that he or she would not prevail.
(f) The terms of this section shall not be applicable to any produci
Source: Arkansas Code — historical release 78 (November 6, 2020) · 15-74-603
Stored review status: Historical 2020-11-06 source release; later amendments not reconciled; machine-extracted, not independently legally reviewed; source heading status: text_in_historical_source. A text match is a research starting point; applicability is not established.
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Stable record: arkansas_code:legal_authorities:15-74-603
Source file: gov.ar.code.title.15.odt
Pages: Not recorded – Not recorded
Passage SHA-256: 4f0f43d12b826277cc64bf767e7c924d058bf6b2ab985f7ad5dae7a0ed755f64
Source location: content.xml paragraph 25595
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15-74-603. Action for nonpayment of proceeds.
(a) Any court of competent jurisdiction of the county in which the oil or gas well is located shall have jurisdiction over all proceedings brought pursuant to this subchapter.
(b) If persons legally entitled to the proceeds seek relief for the failure of the purchaser to make timely payment of proceeds from the sale of oil or gas or interest thereon as required in §§ 15-74-601 and 15-74-602, the first purchaser or the owner of the right to produce under an oil or gas lease or force pooling order shall be furnished with written notice of the failure as a prerequisite to commencing judicial action for the nonpayment.
(c) The first purchaser shall have thirty (30) days after receipt of the required notice within which to pay proceeds or to respond in writing with a reasonable basis for nonpayment.
(d) If the court is satisfied that payments have not been willfully withheld without just cause or through bad faith, the penalty provisions of § 15-74-602 shall not apply to the withholding of the payments.
(e) In the event of willful nonpayment, or in the event the court finds there was a complete absence of a justiciable issue of either law or fact raised by the losing party or his or her attorney, the court shall award an attorney's fee in an amount not to exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000) or ten percent (10%) of the amount in controversy, whichever is less, to the prevailing party unless a voluntary dismissal is filed, or the pleadings are amended as to any nonjusticiable issue within a reasonable time after the attorney or party filing the dismissal or the amended pleadings knew, or reasonably should have known, that he or she would not prevail.
(f) The terms of this section shall not be applicable to any producing unit or well that produces liquid hydrocarbons only, or liquid hydrocarbons associated with the production of gas, or gas produced associated with the production of liquid hydrocarbons.
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Arkansas Code — all titles (historical 2020) · legal_authorities
15-74-601. Time limits governing oil and gas payments — Definition.
(a) The proceeds derived from the sale of oil or gas production from any oil or gas well shall be paid to persons legally entitled thereto, commencing no later than six (6) months after the date of first sale and thereafter no later than sixty (60) days after the end of the calendar month within which subsequent production is sold or as provided for under subdivision (b)(2) of this section.
(b)(1) The payment of proceeds under subsection (a) of this section is to be made to persons entitled thereto by the first purchasers of the production.
(2) The payment may be made annually for the aggregate of up to twelve (12) months of accumulation of proceeds if the aggregate amount owed is at least ten dollars ($10.00), but less than one hundred fifty dollars ($150), provided, upon written request by the royalty owner, the payment shall be made when the aggregate amount exceeds fifty dollars ($50.00). Accumulated amounts of less than ten dollars ($10.00) may be held but shall be paid when production ceases or by the payor of the payment upon relinquishing responsibility.
(c) As used in this subchapter, “first purchaser” means the first commercial purchaser after completion of the well and shall not include purchasers of oil or gas during initial testing prior to completion.
(d) Any delay in determining the persons legally entitled to an interest in the proceeds from production caused by unmarketable title to the interest shall not affect payments to persons whose title is marketable.
(e) When payment has not been made within the time limits specified in this subchapter, the first purchaser shall pay interest to those legally entitled to the withheld proceeds commencing on the payment due date at the
Source: Arkansas Code — historical release 78 (November 6, 2020) · 15-74-601
Stored review status: Historical 2020-11-06 source release; later amendments not reconciled; machine-extracted, not independently legally reviewed; source heading status: text_in_historical_source. The source passage cites 15-74-601. This identifies an authority to review, not proof of applicability.
Arkansas Code — all titles (historical 2020) · legal_authorities
15-74-602. Fraudulently withholding payments.
(a) If the first purchaser, or owner of the right to drill and produce substituted for the first commercial purchaser as provided in this subchapter, violates this subchapter by willfully withholding payments without just cause or through bad faith from persons legally entitled to the proceeds from production, the court may award, in addition to the unpaid amount of proceeds and interest as provided in § 15-74-601, a penalty in an amount not to exceed simple interest at a rate of fourteen percent (14%) per annum on the amount of the unpaid proceeds from the due date as provided in § 15-74-601 and a reasonable attorney's fee.
(b) The terms of this section shall not be applicable to any producing unit or well that produces liquid hydrocarbons only, or liquid hydrocarbons associated with the production of gas, or gas produced associated with the production of liquid hydrocarbons.
Source: Arkansas Code — historical release 78 (November 6, 2020) · 15-74-602
Stored review status: Historical 2020-11-06 source release; later amendments not reconciled; machine-extracted, not independently legally reviewed; source heading status: text_in_historical_source. The source passage cites 15-74-602. This identifies an authority to review, not proof of applicability.