of petroleum or mineral oil of whatever grade or class, of natural gas, and of any other products of the same or analogous nature.

Article 5. No contract which the Government may clearly celebrate for the transfer or exploitation of coal mines and deposits of asphalt, petroleum or natural gas, belonging to the same, shall be valid without the approval of the Congress.

NOTE: This law of 1903 placed petroleum on the same basis with coal and under the Fiscal Code of 1873 no claim was made by the Government to rights concerning coal on private lands. Provisions of the Fiscal Code (Art. 1116 ff) relative to coal mines were made applicable to deposits of asphalt, mineral oil and natural gas. Under these provisions, the State reserves the ownership in all deposits found in public lands.

No claim was made by the State as to rights concerning coal on private lands.

Article 4: Fiscal property of the State includes:

(a) That which has this character by virtue of article 202 of the Constitution, without prejudice to the rights acquired by persons or corporations.

(b)-Copper mines existing in national territory, also without prejudice to the rights acquired by persons or corporations.

(c) The mines, distinct from those mentioned in Article 202 of the Constitution and in clause (b) of this Article, as those of coal, iron sulfur, petroleum, asphalt, etc., discovered or which may be discovered in public lands or in land which in such character (as public lands) may have been adjudicated subsequent to October 28, 1874 (the date the Fiscal Code of 1873 came into force), also without prejudice to the rights acquired by persons or corporations.

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Article 112. All petroleum mines found within public lands, or that have been adjudicated as such after the enforcement of law 30, 1913 may be denounced by their discoverers, within the extension, by the procedure and through the payment of the royalties demanded by the State pursuant to the Mining Code, through the denouncement and the exploitation of alluvial or lode gold mines. All petroleum mine denouncers shall enjoy with regard to the public lands the easements referred to in Article 54 and have a right on any estate of private ownership, for the establishment of a pipe line, the right of way and other rights of a legal character pursuant to the stipulations of common right.

NOTE: Article 112 of the Fiscal Code, 1912, provided that petroleum mines " discovered on public lands could be denounced in the same manner as placer gold mines, but this clause was specifically annulled by Law No. 75 of 1913.

LAW 1913.

RESERVATIONS OF PETROLEUM.

NO. 75.

Article 1: The Nation reserves the proprietorship of the deposits and sources of petroleum and of hydrocarbons in general, situated in public lands, or in lands which pertain to the Nation by virtue of any other title.

Article 2: Until the passage of a law regulating the denouncement and adjudication of sources of petroleum and hydrocarbons in general, situated in public lands, it will only be possible to make temporary concessions of these rights by virtue of contracts approved by the Congress.

Article 3: Article 112 of the Fiscal Code is hereby annulled.

NOTE: The foregoing is presumed to cover all legislation affecting petroleum development down to the issuance of the President's decree of June 20, 1919.

On June 20, 1919, the President issued a decree containing twelve articles defining the ownership of minerals, including petroleum and providing for the methods of obtaining and operating the same. On September 2, 1919, the Attorney-General by petition and argument asked the Supreme Court to hold invalid the decree of the President on the ground of want of authority to make the decree and its unconstitutionality. The Supreme Court by opinion of November 21, 1919 sustained the Attorney-General's petition and declared the decree of the President invalid.

The Congress then in session on December 30, 1919, enacted a new law covering the subject of petroleum, and all hydrocarbons, and other minerals. This law deals exclusively with public lands and was drafted in accordance with a decision of the Supreme Court and is as follows:

Article 1. For the purposes of this law, the denomination hydrocarbon includes all the sub-soil formations of mineral oils, such as petroleum of every kind, natural gases taken from the same formations, bitumens, asphalts, fossil wax and rosin.

The provisions of this law shall not apply to asphalt deposits that are worked for the manufacture of pastes therefrom to be consumed in the country.

Exported asphalt will pay a tax of 6, 4 or 2 per cent according to the zone from which it comes, in accordance with Article 2.

Article 2. For the purposes of this law the territory of the Republic is divided into three zones, namely:

First-Including the beds or deposits lying at a distance of 200 kilometres or less from the shore of the sea, which shall pay a minimum operation tax of 10 per cent of the gross product.

Second-Including the deposits lying at a distance of more than 200 kilometres and not more than 400 kilometres from the shore of the sea, which shall pay a minimum tax of 8 per cent of the gross product, and—

Third-Includes the deposits lying more than 400 kilometres from the shore of the sea, on whose gross product there shall be paid a minimum tax of 6 per cent.

Contracts drawn up under this law shall provide that the tax set on the basis of the minimum fixed by this article, shall be increased by one unit for every ten years of operation.

Article 3. Under all contracts of lease of beds or deposits of hydrocarbons lying in unclaimed (uncultivated) lands or lands recovered or to be recovered by the nation on account of annulment, lapse or rescission of the awards thereof, that have been made; in lands which the nation may have acquired or shall acquire by any title whatsoever, and in those which may belong to it as fiscal property, there shall be paid in addition to the tax referred to in the foregoing article, an annual rate of $0.10 per hectare of the concession in the first year, and $0.20 in the second, $0.50 in the third and $1.00 in the fourth and thereafter until the expiration of the lease.

On lands awarded or ceded as unclaimed (public) lands after October 28, 1873, there shall only be paid the operation tax determined in accordance with the foregoing articles.

This last without prejudice to the land-owners' right to collect from the operators such indemnities and royalties as may be due to him under chapters 12 and 13 of the Mining Code.

Article 4. On lands other than those enumerated in the foregoing article, there shall be no occasion to pay to the Nation the annual rate of lease therein expressed on account of the surface area, and the operation tax shall be a fixed percentage of 8, 6, and 4, per cent of the gross product, respectively, in each one of the zones described in article 2.

Article 5. After twenty years, counted from the taking effect of this law, if it should come to the Government's knowledge that deposits of hydrocarbons exist in lands other than those enumerated in article 3, and not yet operated (developed) in accordance with Article 25, the Government shall have the right to take such steps to ascertain whether such deposits are likely to yield hydrocarbons in merchantable qualities and quantities. If the investigations should yield satisfactory results, the Government shall exact from the owner of the land an annual tax of $5 per hectare on the land containing such deposits, which tax shall be collected unless the owner of the land agrees to undertake and carry out the exploitation of the deposit, in which case he shall be subject only to the corresponding exploitation taxes demanded by the laws in force on the subject and in accordance with the commercial requirements that the government may deem advisable.

Article 6. All aliens having any interest whatsoever in the exploitation of hydrocarbons referred to in this law, shall make an express declaration to the effect that they abide by the provisions of law 145 of 1888 "relative to alienship and naturalization" and other laws supplementing and amending that.

Article 7. The right to develop the beds or deposits situated in lands specified in article 3 is acquired by the granting of a lease by the Nation to any natural or artificial person, who, under the common law, may be competent to assume obligations as a lessee and acquire the right to be such a lessee under the provisions of this law.

Article 8. The lessee may transfer or sublet the grant referred to in the previous article, subject to the approval of the Government. When the sublessee or transferee is an alien, he shall make a declaration mentioned in Article 6.

Article 9. The industry of hydrocarbon development and operation and the construction of oil pipelines are declared to be public utilities.

Article 10. The provisions of chapters 12 and 13 of the Mining Code shall apply insofar as they are consistent with the nature of the operation of the beds and deposits mentioned in this law.

In addition, and with a view to promoting the operation of such beds and deposits, the right is hereby reserved to established or create easements for oil pipe lines and including the land necessary for the pumping plants and other appurtenances necessary for the proper operation of the pipes and to build wharves, loading stations, and submarine or subfluvial pipes, all this subject to the previous permission that the Government may grant with the full knowledge of the circumstances and subject to the provisions that may be decreed in the matter.

Persons or entities that may enter into contracts with the Government or obtain its permission to lay oil pipes, without conducting any special work of operating hydrocarbons, shall enjoy the same rights.

The rates of the oil pipe concerns will be subject to the approval and revision of the Government.

CHAPTER II.

CONTRACTS OF LEASING.

Article 11. For the purpose of prospecting for deposits treated of in this law the unclaimed lands that may be granted shall be open to free prospecting. Article 12. In order to prospect unclaimed land that can not be awarded or granted on account of reservation decreed by the nation, and any other land referred to in article 3 of this law, there shall be required a license of the government, which it shall issue to applicants provided there be no special circumstances involving fraud or grave peril to the nation, and provided that the applicants shall bind themselves to deliver to the government the topographic plans of the lands prospected by them and reports with regard to the mineral resources of the same.

The license to prospect may be withdrawn by the Government at any time when it may see fit, and does not vest anyone who shall have received the same with any preferential right for contracting.

Article 13. In order to prospect land awarded or ceded as unclaimed land later than October 28, 1873, if the operation is to be made by a person other than the owner of the land, it will be necessary, in addition to the license which the Government is to issue in accordance with the preceding article, to give previous notice to the owner of the land or to the person who is found to be in charge of it.

The person so notified may not prevent the prospecting, but the owner will be entitled to indemnity to be paid by the prospector for any damage that may be done. In the absence of an agreement, the damages shall be fixed by experts (appraisers) appointed by the parties and a third appointed by the judge, and the damages shall be determined by the value and by the location of the property.

Article 14. Any one wishing to lease for prospecting the deposits referred to in this law shall put his proposal in the form of a memorial (petition) addressed to the Ministry of Public Works and presented in person by the applicant or his attorney at the secretary's office of the said Ministry or to the highest political or judicial authority of his place of residence.

Proposals will be taken into account by the Government, in the order as to time in which they were filed. For this purpose, there shall be kept in those offices a special book where entries will be made of the contract proposals precisely stating the day, hour, and place of presentation.

Article 15. The proposals (applications) shall be made in the following form and in accordance with the following requirements:

I. It shall state the municipal district and the point or part where the beds or deposits are.

II. The zone of exploitation shall be defined by clearly stated bounds, which shall be not more than 5000 or less than 1000 hectares. To that end the application should be accompanied by topographical and geologic maps or plan giving a clear idea of that zone and the deposits it is intended to develop.

III. The names and nationality of every one of the persons for whom the lease is sought, and the share or interest that each one represents in the application or proposal.

This does not bar subsequent changes in the proposal in that respect through a declaration in writing addressed to the Ministry of Public Works. But in order that such declarations may be effective, it is an indispensable condition that they be signed by all the parties in interest and presented by them in person as stated in Article 14.

IV. If the contract is sought for a company, it should be stated who is the company's legal representative and giving the domicile and residence of the such representative.

V. When any one of the persons appearing in the proposal is neither a native nor a naturalized Colombian citizen, the requirements set forth in article 6 shall have to be complied with.

VI. The memorial (application) should state that the applicant suomits himself to all the provisions of this law, especially with regard to the government supervision, payment of taxes, rate of lease, and ground for forfeiture, etc.

VII. There shall be expressed the amount or rate of rent that the applicant offers to pay and the other circumstances which may make the contract more advantageous to the nation under the general conditions of the law.

Article 16. In case only one application shall have been received for one sole bed or deposit, the lease may be granted to the applicant; provided that a favorable decision be previously given by the Treasury Board, created by Law 109 of this year and approved by the Council of Cabinet ministers, all of whom deem it to be expedient for the interests of the country.

Article 17. If there should be several applicants, preference, all conditions being equal, for the conclusion of the contract, shall be given to him who can prove that he discovered the bed or deposit.

If there be no such discoverer among the applicants, preference, all other things being equal, shall be given to the persons or entities who duly give security for their contractual obligations or are in a position to conduct the operation by themselves, and among these, to those who, in the opinion of the government, offer the best guarantees of solvency, respectability or security.

The landholders in lands ceded or adjudged as unclaimed later than October 28, 1873, and before the taking effect of the law 30 of 1903, shall receive preference, all conditions being equal, for the term of two years counted from the taking effect of this law in the making of the lease-contract. At the expiration of that term, the provision in the first part of this article shall rule with regard to such lands.

The government shall prescribe the necessary measures to make sure that no beds of hydrocarbons, lying in land which may by any title belong to the nation. are operated as private property.

All exploiters of petroleum deposits lying in lands distinct from those dealt with in article 3 of this law shall bring before the respective Department proof that the municipal, departmental or national taxes due on the land that has been operated, have been paid by the owner of the land for the previous period of not less than ten years.

Article 18. Rights lawfully acquired prior to the taking effect of this law can not be affected by contracts entered into by virtue of this law and the Nation declines responsibility for such interference or limitation in the enjoyment of the property leased that may be caused by the lawful exercise of such rights.

It is understood that the exploitation tax shall be covered in every case by the person concerned.

Article 19. Upon receipt of the proposals, if the Ministry should before passing upon them have doubts as to the authenticity of the documents or the accuracy of the plans presented, the good standing or solvency of the applicants or any other point that may properly be investigated, investigation shall be ordered to establish the facts, at the expense of the interested parties.

Article 20. Before passing upon the proposal or application, the Ministry shall publish in the Diario Oficial, an abstract or summary thereof, in which will