OIL PIPELINES

Nev. Rev. Stat. 708
in effect

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 708.010 “Commission” defined.

As used in this chapter, “Commission” means the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 708.020 Owner, operator or manager of oil pipeline declared to be common carrier.

Every person, firm, corporation, partnership, joint-stock association or association of any kind whatever: 1. Owning, operating or managing any pipeline or any part of any pipeline within the State of Nevada for the transportation of crude oil or petroleum to or for the public for hire, or engaged in the business of transporting crude oil or petroleum by pipeline; 2. Owning, operating or managing any pipeline or any part of any pipeline for the transportation of crude oil or petroleum to or for the public for hire, which pipeline is constructed or maintained upon, along, over or under any public road or highway, or in favor of whom the right of eminent domain exists; 3. Owning, operating or managing any pipeline or any part of any pipeline or pipelines for transportation to or for the public for hire, of crude oil or petroleum, which pipeline or pipelines is or may be constructed, operated or maintained across, upon, along, over or under the right-of-way of any railroad corporation or other common carrier required by law to transport crude oil or petroleum as a common carrier; or 4. Owning, operating or managing or participating in ownership, operation or management, under lease, contract of purchase, agreement to buy or sell, or other agreement or arrangement of any kind whatever, any pipeline or pipelines, or part of any pipeline, for the transportation from any oil field or place of production within the State of Nevada to any distributing, refining or marketing center, or reshipping point thereof, within this state, of crude oil or petroleum bought of others or owned by others, Ê is hereby declared to be a common carrier and subject to the provisions of this chapter.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 708.025 Operation as intrastate carrier without certificate of public convenience and necessity prohibited.

It is unlawful for any oil pipeline carrier to operate as a carrier in intrastate commerce within this state without first having obtained a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the Commission.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 708.035 Certificate of public convenience and necessity: Hearing; considerations; terms and conditions.

1. Upon the filing of an application for a certificate of public convenience and necessity, the Commission shall fix a time and place for hearing thereon, and shall proceed in the manner according to the provisions of the laws of this state made applicable thereto. 2. Before granting a certificate of public convenience and necessity to an applicant, the Commission shall take into consideration: (a) Other authorized facilities in the territory for which a certificate is sought; (b) The public necessity and convenience to be accorded by the service offered by such applicant; and (c) Whether the applicant is fit, willing and able to perform the services of a common carrier. 3. The Commission may, under such rules of procedure governing the application therefor as it may prescribe, issue a certificate of public convenience and necessity to an oil pipeline carrier, or issue it for the partial exercise only of the privilege sought, and may attach to the exercise of the rights granted by such certificate such terms and conditions as, in its judgment, the public convenience and necessity may require.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 708.050 Right to construct and maintain pipeline along, on or under public stream or road: Conditions; compensation for damage to public road.

1. The right to lay, maintain and operate pipelines, together with telephone and telegraph lines incidental to and designated for use only in connection with the operations of those pipelines, along, across or under any public stream or highway in this state, is hereby conferred upon all persons coming within any of the definitions of common carrier pipelines contained in NRS 708.020 , who have obtained a certificate of public convenience and necessity as provided in NRS 708.025 and 708.035 . 2. In the exercise of the privileges herein conferred, such pipelines shall compensate the county or counties for any damage done to the public road or highway in the laying of pipelines, telegraph or telephone lines, along or across the same. 3. This section does not: (a) Grant any pipeline company the right to use any public street or alley of any incorporated city except by express permission from the city or governing authority thereof. (b) Allow any company to use any street or alley of an unincorporated town, except by express permission of the board of county commissioners of the county in which the town is situated.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 708.060 Power of Commission to establish and enforce rates and regulations; procedure; reimbursement of excessive charges.

1. The Commission shall have the power: (a) To establish and enforce rates of charges and regulations for gathering, transporting, loading and delivering crude oil or petroleum by such common carriers in this state, and for the use of storage facilities necessarily incident to such transportation; and (b) To prescribe and enforce rules and regulations for the government and control of such common carriers in respect to their pipelines and receiving, transferring and loading facilities. 2. The Commission shall exercise such power upon petition by any person showing a substantial interest in the subject. 3. No order establishing or prescribing rates, rules and regulations shall be made except after a hearing and at least 10 days’ and not more than 30 days’ notice to the person, firm, corporation, partnership, joint-stock association, or association owning or controlling and operating or managing the pipeline or pipelines affected. 4. If any rate shall be filed by any pipeline, and a complaint against the same or a petition to reduce the same shall be filed by any shipper, and such complaint is sustained, in whole or in part, all shippers who shall have paid the rates so filed by the pipeline company shall have the right to reparation reimbursement of all excess in transportation charges so paid over and above the proper rate as finally determined on all shipments made after the date of the filing of such complaint.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 708.070 Exchange of tonnage of crude petroleum; installation of connections and facilities; regulations of Commission pertaining to marketable oil, temperature, leakage and evaporation.

1. Every common carrier as defined in NRS 708.020 shall exchange crude petroleum tonnage with each like common carrier, and the Commission shall have the power to require such connections and facilities for the interchange of such tonnage to be made at every locality reached by both pipelines whenever a necessity therefor exists, subject to such rates and regulations as may be made by the Commission. Any such common carrier under like rules and regulations shall be required to install and maintain facilities for the receipt and delivery of crude oil and petroleum of patrons at all points on such pipeline. 2. No carrier shall be required to receive or transport any crude oil or petroleum except such as may be marketable under rules and regulations to be prescribed by the Commission, which the Commission is hereby empowered and required to prescribe. 3. The Commission is also empowered and required to make rules for the ascertainment of the amount of water and other foreign matter in oil tendered for transportation, and for deduction therefor and for the amount of deduction to be made for temperature, leakage and evaporation. 4. The recital herein of particular powers of the Commission shall not be construed to limit the general powers conferred upon the Commission by this chapter. 5. Until set aside or vacated by some decree or order of a court of competent jurisdiction, all orders of the Commission as to any matter within its jurisdiction shall be accepted as prima facie evidence of their validity.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 708.080 Publication of tariffs; reports; investigation of books; limitation on disclosure of reports by Commission; hearings and enforcement of orders.

1. Such common carriers of crude oil or petroleum shall make and publish their tariffs under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the Commission. 2. The Commission shall require such common carriers to make reports, and may investigate their books and records kept in connection with such business, but no publicity shall be given by the Commission to the reports as to the stock of crude oil or petroleum on hand of any particular pipeline. In its discretion, the Commission may make public the aggregate amounts held by all the pipelines making such reports, and of their aggregate storage capacity. 3. The Commission shall have the power and authority: (a) To hear and determine complaints. (b) To require attendance of witnesses and pay their expenses. (c) To institute suits and sue out such writs and process as may be necessary for the enforcement of its orders.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 708.090 Discrimination between shippers or in charging for services prohibited; ratable transportation when production exceeds capacity of pipeline.

1. No such common carrier in its operations as such shall discriminate against or between shippers in regard to facilities furnished or service rendered or rates charged under the same or similar circumstances in the transportation of crude oil or petroleum; nor shall there be any discrimination in the transportation of crude oil or petroleum produced or purchased by itself, directly or indirectly. In this connection, the pipeline shall be considered as a shipper of the crude oil or petroleum produced or purchased by itself, directly or indirectly, and handled through its facilities. 2. No such carrier in its operations shall directly or indirectly charge, demand, collect or receive from anyone a greater or less compensation for any service rendered than from another for a like and contemporaneous service; but this shall not limit the right of the Commission to prescribe rates and regulations different from or to some places from other rates or regulations for transportation from or to other places, as it may determine; nor shall any carrier be guilty of discrimination when obeying any order of the Commission. 3. When there shall be offered for transportation more crude oil or petroleum than can be immediately transported, the common carrier shall transport oil from each person and producer ratably, in proportion to the average daily production; but no such common carrier shall be required to receive for shipment from any person, firm, corporation or association of persons more than 3,000 barrels of crude oil or petroleum in any 1 day.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 708.100 Common purchaser: Duties; discrimination prohibited.

1. Every person, firm, corporation, joint-stock association or other association which is engaged in the business of purchasing crude oil or petroleum produced in the State of Nevada, using in connection with such purchase a pipeline or pipelines within this state, shall be deemed a common purchaser thereof, and shall purchase all of the oil or petroleum in the vicinity thereof which may be reasonably reached by its pipelines and gathering branches, without discrimination in favor of one person as against another, and shall fully perform all the duties of a common purchaser. If it shall be unable to purchase and transport all of the oil and petroleum produced and offered to it for sale, then it shall purchase and transport oil from each person and producer offering to sell the person’s or producer’s oil to the common purchaser ratably, in proportion to the average daily production. 2. Such common purchasers are hereby expressly prohibited from discriminating in price or amount for like grades of oil as between producers or persons; and if such purchaser is likewise a producer, it is hereby prohibited from discriminating in favor of its own production or storage, or production or storage in which it may be interested, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, and its own production and storage shall be treated as that of any other person or producer.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 708.110 Discrimination in receipt and transportation of crude oil or petroleum prohibited.

Subject to the provisions of this chapter and the rules and regulations which may be prescribed by the Commission, every such common carrier shall receive and transport crude oil or petroleum offered to it for transportation and shall receive and transport the same and perform its other duties with respect thereto without discrimination.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 708.120 Regulations of Commission to prevent waste of oil or dangerous operations.

The Commission, when necessary, shall make and enforce rules and regulations either general in their nature or applicable to particular oil fields for the prevention of: 1. Actual waste of oil; or 2. Operations in the field dangerous to life or property.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 708.130 Applicability of chapter.

The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to: 1. Those pipelines which are limited in their use to the wells, stations, plants and refineries of their owner and which are not a part of the pipeline transportation system of any common carrier as defined in NRS 708.020 . 2. Any property of such a common carrier which is not a part of or necessarily incident to its pipeline transportation system.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 708.140 Penalties.

1. Any common carrier as defined in NRS 708.020 which violates any provision of this chapter or fails to perform any duty imposed by this chapter or any valid order of the Commission, when not stayed or suspended by an order of a court, is subject to a penalty of not more than $1,000 for each offense. 2. Any officer of a common carrier or common purchaser who willfully violates any of the provisions of this chapter forbidding discrimination on the part of common carriers is guilty of a gross misdemeanor. Each violation of the provisions of this chapter shall be deemed a separate offense.
Source: NV Statutes (Official Site)URL: https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/NRS-708.htmlFetched: 10/4/2026