Florida Statutes

Fla. Stat. § 253.571 (2025)

Proof of financial responsibility required of lessee prior to commencement of drilling.

✓ 2025 Florida Statutes — current through the 2025 Regular Session
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253.571 Proof of financial responsibility required of lessee prior to commencement of drilling.The Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund may require a surety or property bond, an irrevocable letter of credit, or other proof of financial responsibility from each lessee of public land or mineral interest prior to the time such lessee mines, drills, or extracts in any manner, petroleum, petroleum products, gas, sulphur, or any other mineral from such land. The surety bond or irrevocable letter of credit shall be from a surety company or bank authorized to do business in the state. The surety bond, irrevocable letter of credit, or other proof of financial responsibility shall serve as security and is to be forfeited to the board to pay for any damages caused by mining or drilling operations performed by the lessee. In the case of operations planned in the waters of the state or under other particular circumstances which, by their nature warrant greater security in view of possible damages, the board shall give special consideration to the extent of such possible damages and shall set the amount of an adequate and sufficient surety bond, irrevocable letter of credit, or other proof of financial responsibility accordingly. For the purposes of this section, damages shall include, but not be limited to, air, water, and ground pollution, destruction of wildlife or marine productivity and any other damage which impairs the health and general welfare of the citizens of the state.
History.s. 1, ch. 69-367; ss. 27, 35, ch. 69-106; s. 1, ch. 89-358.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 2 cases, 1996–1996 · leading case: Coastal Petroleum Co. v. Chiles, 672 So. 2d 571 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996).
Coastal Petroleum Co. v. Chiles, 672 So. 2d 571 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996). · cites it 8× “Coastal Petroleum Company (Coastal) and other interested persons appeal from final orders of the appellee Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund (the trustees) whereby the trustees relied upon section 253.571, Florida Statutes, in requiring a surety bond as a…”
Coastal Petroleum Co. v. Dep't of Env't Prot., 672 So. 2d 574 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996). · cites it 2× “1st DCA 1996), in which this court held that the trustees’ retroactive application of section 253.571, Florida Statutes, to a preexisting oil and gas lease to impose a
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Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.

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