Oil conservation assessment, in order to pay the costs in connection with oil and gas conservation administration not otherwise provided for, shall be made as follows:

1. (1)

   1. (A) There shall be assessed a charge not to exceed fifty (50) mills (Acts 2001, No. 1188) on each barrel of crude oil or petroleum marketed or used from a field or pool each month.
   2. (B) Said charge and assessment shall only apply to the first purchase or use of oil from the producer and not to subsequent transfers commonly referred to as “tenderships”.
   3. (C) Effective on and after January 1, 2002, the oil conservation assessment shall be forty-three (43) mills;
2. (2) The first purchaser, user, or holder for a period of thirty (30) days of the production, who is hereby defined to be the person holding the division order and issuing checks to pay for any working interest or royalty interest, shall before issuing checks or otherwise paying for the production, deduct the amount assessed per barrel of oil marketed, used or held for a period of thirty (30) days from the lease each month, and remit the amounts;
3. (3) Said remittance shall be made by the fifteenth of the month following the month in which the oil was purchased in a single check if the purchaser so desires, and the only accounting necessary by the purchaser shall be to show the deductions under this order on the regular payment statements to producers and royalty owners or parties in interest; and

4. (4)

   1. (A) Any person purchasing oil in this state at the well, under any contract or agreement requiring payment for such production to the respective owners thereof, in respect of which production any sums assessed under this section as payable to the Oil and Gas Commission, is hereby authorized, empowered, and required to deduct from any sum so payable to any such person the amount due the commission by virtue of any such assessment and remit that sum to the commission in the manner stated.
   2. (B) Further, any person taking oil from any well in this state for use or resale, in respect of which production any sums assessed under the provisions of this section are payable to the commission, shall remit any sum so due to the commission in accordance with this part.

Codification Notes: This section as promulgated prior to codification into the Code of Arkansas Rules provided as follows: "(Source: 1992 rule book; amended November 27, 2001)"