Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 72 Part 1.djvu/366

 324

Transferre d lands.

S a v i n g s pr ovision. 48 USC 381.

Venue.

30 USC 251. Rental and royalty c o n c e s s i o n s.

Exception.

PUBLIC LAW 85-505-JULY 3, 1958

[72

ST A T.

beneath nontidal navigable waters in the Territory of Alaska. For the purposes of this section an area shall be considered to be within the boundaries descuibed in the lease (or application or offer) even though it is excluded from such description by general terms which exclude all described lands that are or may be situated beneath navigable waters. SEC. 7. Upon the transfer to the Territory of Alaska or to any future State or States erected out of the Territory of Alaska of title to any of the lands beneath nontidal navigable waters in the Territory of Alaska, the provisions of this Act shall cease to apply to any lands which are so transferred: Provided, however, That any lease issued pursuant to this Act (or application or offer for such a lease) or unitization or other agreement approved or prescribed by the Secretary as to any of the lands covered by any such lease which is in effect at the time of such transfer of title to any of the lands beneath nontidal navigable waters in the Territory of Alaska shall not be terminated or otherwise affected by such transfer of title; but all the right, title, and interest of the United States under such lease (or application or offer for lease) or unitization or other agreement, including any authority to modify its terms and conditions that may have been retained by the United States, and all obligations thereunder shall vest in the Territory of Alaska or the State to which title to those lands beneath nontidal navigable waters in the Territory of Alaska covered by the lease (or application or offer for lease) or unitization or other agreement is transferred. SEC. 8. Nothing in this Act shall be deemed to repeal or modify any provision of the Act of August 8, 1947 (61 Stat. 916), entitled "An Act to amend section 26, title I, chapter 1, of the Act entitled 'An Act making further provision for a civil government for Alaska, and for other purposes', permitting exploration and mining for gold and other precious metals in beds of navigable tidal and nontidal waters of Alaska, but nothing in said Act of August 8, 1947, nor any rights acquired thereunder shall preclude simultaneous and unimpeded operations under any lease issued pursuant to this Act. SEC. 9. Any proceeding affecting any lease issued pursuant to this Act may be brought in the United States District Court for the District of Alaska or in any United States district court for the district in which the defendant resides or has his principal place of business. SEC. 10. Section 22 of the Act of February 25, 1920 (41 Stat. 446), is amended to read as follows: "SEC. 22. That 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 the passage of this Act 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 the date of this Act, or within six months after final denial or withdrawal of application for patent, to a lease or leases, under this Act 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

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