Section 19 in The Petroleum and Natural Gas Rules, 1959
19. General provisions. - The licensee or the lessee shall-
(a)maintain in good repair and condition all apparatus, appliances and wells capable of producing petroleum on the [area] covered by the license or the lease;(b)execute all prospecting or mining operations on such area in a proper and workmanlike manner in accordance with such methods and practice as are customarily use in modem oilfield practice and abide by all instructions, directions and orders that may be give pursuant to any rules under Chapter VI; and(c)[ the licensee or the lessee shall, as soon as possible provide the Central Government or its designated agency, free of cost, all data earlier obtained or to be obtained as a result of petroleum operations under the license or lease including, but not limited to, geological, geophysical, geochemical, petrolphysical, engineering, well logs, maps, magnetic tapes, cores, cuttings and production data as well as all interpretative and derivative data, including reports, analyses, interpretations and evaluation prepared in respect of petroleum operations and as such data shall be the property of the Central Government: [Substituted by G.S.R. 507(E), dated 28.8.2006 (w.e.f. 28.8.2006). ]Provided that the licensee or the lessee shall have the right to make use of such data, free of cost, for the purpose of petroleum operations under the license or lease;(d)the Central Government or its designated agency shall have the rights to disclose at any time, any or all data of non-proprietary nature, to any person or legal entity, if in the opinion of the Central Government or its designated agency disclosure of such data shall help and promote exploration and production activities in India:Provided that the disclosure of any data of proprietary nature for these purposes may be made by the Central Government or its designated agency at any time with the consent of the licensee or the lessee:Provided further that in cases where five years have lapsed from the date from which such data becomes available or upon determination of the license or lease, whichever is earlier, such data may be disclosed to any person or legal entity to promote exploration and production of hydrocarbons, for which disclosure no consent shall be required:Provided also that in case of a conflict on the question as to whether any particular data is of proprietary nature, the Central Government shall be the sole authority to decide on the matter;(e)upon determination of a license or lease in respect of an on land area, a copy of the data shall also be provided to the State Government, which has granted license or lease.][19-A. Recovery of helium from natural gas.(1)Nothing contained in these rules or the terms of a license or a lease or a contract will give right to a licensee or a lessee to use, sell or otherwise dispose of Helium which may be produced with natural gas and the licensee/lessee spall dispose of such helium in accordance with such directions as may be issued in this behalf by the Central Government or by an officer or an agency duly authorised for this purpose by the Central Government.(2)If the Central Government desires to extract helium from natural gas, the licensee/lessee, in order to enable the Government to install and operate equipment and facilities for carrying out helium recovery operations, shall make available to the Central Government or its nominee the area and utilities required for such operations and in such a case the licensee/lessee shall be entitled for compensation based on the internal company accounting practices to be mutually agreed between the licensee/lessee and the Central Government/its nominee.]
