If the commission, its agents, employees, or contractors, plugs or replugs a well or reclaims a well site , pipeline facility, production facility, saltwater handling facility, or treating plant under the provisions of sections 38-08-04.4, 38-08-04.5, 38-08-04.7, 38-08-04.8, 38-08-04.9, and 38-08-04.10, the state has a cause of action for all reasonable expenses incurred in the plugging, replugging, or reclamation against the operator at the time the well is required to be plugged and the well or facility is required to be abandoned or any or all persons who own a working interest in the well , pipeline facility, production facility, saltwater handling facility, or treating plant at the time the well is required to be plugged and the well, pipeline facility, production facility, saltwater handling facility, or treating plant abandoned as a result of the ownership of a lease or mineral interest in the property on which the well , pipeline facility, production facility, saltwater handling facility, or treating plant is located. The term "working interest owner" does not mean a royalty owner or an overriding royalty interest owner. The commission shall seek reimbursement for all reasonable expenses incurred in plugging any well or reclaiming any well site , pipeline facility, production facility, saltwater handling facility, or treating plant through an action instituted by the attorney general. The liability of any working interest owner under this section shall be limited to that proportion of the reasonable expenses incurred by the commission that the interest of any such working interest owner bears to the entire working interest in the well. Any money collected in a suit under this section must be deposited in the state abandoned oil and gas well plugging and site reclamation fund. Any suit brought by the commission for reimbursement under this section may be brought in the district court for Burleigh County, the county in which the plugged well or reclaimed well site , pipeline facility, production facility, saltwater handling facility, or treating plant is located, or the county in which any defendant resides.
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