Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 49 Part 1.djvu/719

 674 An ~ust 21, 1935 .	TLS. 3311 .] [Public, No. 29734 .] General Leasing Act, amendments. Vol. 41, pp. 441-442, 443, 449 ; Vol. , 46, pp. 1007, 1523, amnded. U. S. C., pp. 1343, 1346 . Oil and gas depo sits . Prospecting permits ; granting. Limited to two y ears . Maximum area. Conditions. Provisos. Date of filing app li- cations. No preferential per- mits. Ro yal ty to be pa id when permit is sued after discovery . Time limit on appli- cations. Extension of permit; c ondit ions. Valid out stan ding permits. Conditional exten- sion of periods. 74TH CONGRESS. SESS. I. CH. 599 . AUGUST 21, 1935. [CHAPTER 599 .] AN ACT To amend an Act entitled "An Act to promote the mining of coal, phosphate, oil, oil shale, gas, and sodium on the public domain", approved February 25, 1920 (41 Stat. 437; U. S. C., title 30, sees. 185, 221, 223, 226), as amended. Be it enacted by the Senate and House o f Representatives o f the United States of America in Congress assembled, That sections 13, 14, 17, and 28 of the Act entitled "An Act to promote the mining of coal, phosphate, oil, oil sha le, gas, and sodium on th e public domain " , approved February 25, 1920 (41 Stat . 437 ; U . S . C ., title 30, sees. 185, 221, 223, 226), as amended, are amended to read as follows : " SEc. 13 . That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized, and directed, under such necessary and proper rules and regulations as he may prescribe, to grant to any applicant qualified under this Act a prospecting permit, which shall give the exclusive right, for a period not exceeding two years, to prospect for oil or gas upon not to exceed two thousand five hundred and sixty acres of land wherein such deposits belong to the United States and are not within any known geo logic al s truct ure of a prod ucing oil or g as f ield upon cond i- tion that the permittee shall begin drilling operations within six months from the date of the permit, and shall, within one year from and after the date of permit, drill one or more wells for oil or gas to a depth of not less than five hundred feet each, unless valuable deposits of oil or gas shall be sooner discovered, and shall, within two years from date of the permit, drill for oil or gas to an aggre- gate depth of not less than two thousand feet unless valuable deposits of oil or gas shall be sooner discovered : Provided, That said appli- cation was filed ninety days prior to the effective date of this amend- atory Act. It being the intention of Congress that there shall be no discrimination as between applicants for prospecting permits, the Secretary of the Interior is directed, in every case where one or more per mits have been iss ued, to i ssue perm its t o all oth er ap plic ants for prospecting permits on the same structure, even though one or more of the permittees has developed the said structure into a pro- ducing oil or gas field, if said application for permit was filed prior to the develop ment of such st ructure into a producin g oil o r gas fie ld, and said ap plicant has oth erwise complied with t he law Provided further, That when such permit is issued upon any struc- ture after discovery, the royalty to be paid upon the preferential lease p rovided for in section 14 here of shal l be 10 per cen tum in amount or value of t he production and the annual payment of a rental as provided in said section 14. No prospecting permit shall be granted upon any application filed after ninety days prior to the effective date of this amendatory Act. The Secretary of the Interior may, if he shall find that the permittee has been unable with the exercise of diligence to test the land in the time granted by the permit, extend any such permit for such time, not exceeding two years, and upon such conditions as he shall prescribe : Provided, That all perm its out standing on the effecti ve date of this amenda - tory Act, which on said date shall not be subject to cancelation for violation of the law or operating regulations and which have theretofore been extended by the Secretary of the Interior, shall be, and the same are hereby, extended until December 31, 1937, subject to the applicable conditions of such prior extensions : Provided further, That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized, to extend for an additional period of not to exceed one year any permit on which diligence has been exercised or on which drill ing or p rospect ing has been su spended at the directio n of th e Secretary during the extension period hereby granted, but no exten-