N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law § 23-1105: Prohibition on state authorizations related to certain offshore oil and natural gas production

§ 23-1105. Prohibition on state authorizations related to certain

offshore oil and natural gas production.

1. Neither the department nor the office of general services shall

enter into any new lease or other conveyance, lease renewal, extension

or modification, that authorizes the exploration for, or the development

and production of, oil or natural gas upon lands owned by the state in

the marine and coastal district as defined in section 13-0103 of this

chapter, that would result in the increase of oil or natural gas

production from federal waters.

2. The department is authorized to establish such rules and

regulations as it shall deem necessary to implement this section.

3. For the purposes of this section, the following terms have the

following meanings:

a. "Development" means those activities taking place following the

discovery of oil and natural gas, including geophysical activity,

drilling, platform construction, pipeline construction, and operation of

all onshore support facilities that are performed for the purposes of

ultimately producing the resources discovered.

b. "Exploration" means the process of searching for oil and natural

gas, including any drilling whether on or off known geological

structures, including the drilling of a well in which a discovery of oil

or natural gas is made and the drilling of any additional delineation

well after the discovery that is needed to delineate any reservoir and a

lessee to determine whether to proceed with development and production.

c. "Federal waters" means those waters and submerged lands lying

seaward to the state waters of New York that appertain to the United

States and are subject to federal jurisdiction and control.

d. "New or additional exploration, development, or production of oil

or natural gas" includes any activity undertaken to increase the

capacity of any pipeline or other infrastructure used to convey oil or

natural gas from federal waters.

e. "Production" means those activities that take place after the

successful completion of any means for the removal of oil and natural

gas, including that removal, field operations, transfer or resources to

shore, operation, monitoring, maintenance, and workover drilling.

"Producing" means undertaking those activities.