Okla. Stat. tit. 52, § 52-23: Pipeline operators common purchasers - Requirements -

Exemptions.

Every corporation, joint-stock company, limited copartnership,

partnership or other person, now or hereafter claiming or exercising

the right to carry or transport natural gas by pipeline or

pipelines, for hire, compensation, or otherwise, within the limits

of this state, is allowed by, and upon compliance with the

requirements of this act, as owner, lessee, licensee, or by virtue

of any other right or claim, which is now engaged or hereafter shall

engage in the business of purchasing natural gas shall be a common

purchaser thereof, and shall purchase all the natural gas in the

vicinity of, or which may be reasonably reached by its pipelines, or

gathering branches, without discrimination in favor of one producer

or one person as against another, and shall fully perform all the

duties of a common purchaser; but if it shall be unable to perform

the same, or be legally excused from purchasing and transporting all

the natural gas produced or offered, then it shall purchase and

transport natural gas from each person or producer ratably, in

proportion to the average production, and such common purchasers are

hereby expressly prohibited from discriminating in price or amount

for like grades of natural gas or facilities as between producers or

persons; and in the event it is likewise a producer, it is hereby

prohibited from discrimination in favor of its own production, or

production in which it may be interested directly or indirectly in

whole or in part, and its own production shall be treated as that of

any other person or producer. All persons, firms, associations, and

corporation are exempted from the provisions of this act, except

from the provisions of Section (9) nine hereof, where the nature and

extent of their business is such that the public needs no use in the

same, and the conduct of the same is not a matter of public

consequence, and for this purpose the district courts of the state

and the Corporation Commission are hereby vested with jurisdiction

to determine such exemptions in any action or proceeding properly

before them, and provided by the laws now in force in this state

regulating the purchase and transportation of oil.