§ 303. — Conditions precedent to award of lease; preferred class; bidding.
[Laws in effect as of January 7, 2003]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
January 7, 2003 and December 19, 2003]
[CITE: 30USC303]
TITLE 30--MINERAL LANDS AND MINING
CHAPTER 5--LEASE OF OIL AND GAS DEPOSITS IN OR UNDER RAILROADS AND OTHER
RIGHTS-OF-WAY
Sec. 303. Conditions precedent to award of lease; preferred
class; bidding
Prior to the award of any lease under section 301 of this title, the
Secretary of the Interior shall notify the owner or lessee of adjoining
lands and allow him a reasonable time, to be fixed in the notice given,
within which to submit an offer or bid of the amount or percentage of
compensatory royalty that such owner will agree to pay for the
extraction through wells on his or its adjoining land, of the oil or gas
under and from such adjoining right of way, and at the same time afford
the holder of the railroad or other right of way a like opportunity
within the same time to submit its bid or offer as to the amount or
percentage of royalty it will agree to pay, if a lease for the
extraction of the oil and gas deposits under the right of way be awarded
to the holder of such right of way. In case of competing offers by the
said parties in interest, the Secretary shall award the right to extract
the oil and gas to the bidder, duly qualified, making the offer in his
opinion most advantageous to the United States. In case but one bid or
offer is received after notice duly given, he may, in his discretion,
award the right to extract the oil and gas to such bidder.
(May 21, 1930, ch. 307, Sec. 3, 46 Stat. 374.)
