(a) Subject to the requirements of §§ 203.40, 203.43, 203.45, 203.47, and 203.48 you must apply an RSS in § 203.45 to the earliest oil and gas production:

(1) Occurring on and after the day you file the information under § 203.47(b),

(2) From, or allocated under a BSEE-approved unit agreement to, the lease on which the certified unsuccessful well was drilled, without regard to the drilling depth of the well producing the gas or oil.

(b) If you have a royalty suspension volume for the lease under § 203.41, you must use the royalty suspension volumes for gas produced from qualified wells on the lease before using royalty suspension supplements for gas produced from qualified wells.

Example to paragraph (b):You have two shallow oil wells on your lease. Then you drill a certified unsuccessful well and earn a royalty suspension supplement of 5 BCFE. Thereafter, you begin production from an original well that is a qualified well that earns a royalty suspension volume of 15 BCF. You use only 2 BCFE of the royalty suspension supplement before the oil wells deplete. You must use up the 15 BCF of royalty suspension volume before you use the remaining 3 BCFE of the royalty suspension supplement for gas produced from the qualified well.

(c) If you have no current production on which to apply the RSS allowed under § 203.45, your RSS applies to the earliest subsequent production of gas and oil from, or allocated under a BSEE-approved unit agreement to, your lease.

(d) Unused royalty suspension supplements transfer to a successor lessee and expire with the lease.

(e) You may not apply the RSS allowed under § 203.45 to production from any other lease, except for production allocated to your lease from a BSEE-approved unit agreement. If your certified unsuccessful well is on a lease subject to a BSEE-approved unit agreement, the lessees of other leases in the unit may not apply any portion of the RSS for your lease to production from the other leases in the unit.

(f) You must begin or resume paying royalties when cumulative gas and oil production from, or allocated under a BSEE-approved unit agreement to, your lease (excluding any gas produced from qualified wells subject to a royalty suspension volume allowed under § 203.41) reaches the applicable royalty suspension supplement. For the month in which the cumulative production reaches this royalty suspension supplement, you owe royalties on the portion of gas or oil production that exceeds the amount of the royalty suspension supplement remaining at the beginning of that month.