3. Definitions .-In these rules, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context,--
"petroleum," wherever the word occurs, includes also natural gas;"railway" and "railway administration" have the meaning respectively assigned to them in the [Indian Railways Act, 1890];"geophysical survey" means the search by instruments of the presence of suitable underground geological structures and includes the sinking of bore-holes for detonating explosives necessary for the purpose, but not the drilling of deep bore-holes or the sinking of trial shafts, trenches, or other kinds of large and deep excavations connected with prospecting as defined hereinafter;"prospecting" means the operations necessary to ascertain whether any geological structures favourable for accumulation of oil are present and are capable of yielding petroleum or natural gas in commercially workable quantities. It includes the drilling of deep test wells in such number as would be necessary to verify the geological structure of the oil and gas-bearing formations and their productive extent;"exploring licence" means a licence conferring the sole right on the licensee to search, by geological or geophysical surveys, for oil bearing formations and their underground structure and includes trenching, pitting and drilling of bore-holes for geological information, but not test drilling for petroleum;"prospecting licence" means a licence conferring the sole right on the licensee to conduct all or any of the operations included under prospecting;"mining lease" means a lease conferring the sole right on the lessee to mine, bore, dig, drill, search for, win, work and extract in any quantity, petroleum or natural gas and carry away the crude or refined products as provided in these rules.
