§ 16.1 Agreements to dispose of helium in natural gas.

(a) Pursuant to his authority and jurisdiction over Federal lands, the Secretary may enter into agreements with qualified applicants to dispose of the helium of the United States upon such terms and conditions as he deems fair, reasonable, and necessary to conserve such helium, whenever helium can be conserved that would otherwise be wasted or lost to Federal ownership or use in the production of oil or gas from Government lands embraced in an oil and gas lease or whenever federally owned deposits of helium-bearing gas are being drained. The precise nature of any agreement will depend on the conditions and circumstances involved in that particular case.

(b) An agreement shall be subject to the existing rights of the Federal oil and gas lessee.

(c) An agreement shall provide that in the extraction of helium from gas produced from Federal lands, it shall be extracted so as to cause no delay, except that required by the extraction process, in the delivery of the residue of the gas produced from such lands to the owner thereof. Title will be granted to the helium which is physically reduced to possession.

[30 FR 9218, July 23, 1965]