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.