[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 63 (Monday, April 2, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19704-19711]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-7786]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Office of Natural Resources Revenue
[Docket No. ONRR-2011-0020]
Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection,
Comment Request
AGENCY: Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR), Interior.
ACTION: Notice of an extension of a currently approved information
collection.
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SUMMARY: To comply with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), we
are inviting comments on a collection of information requests that we
will submit to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and
approval. OMB formerly approved this information collection request
(ICR) under OMB Control Number 1010-0139. After the Secretary of the
Department of the Interior established ONRR (the former Minerals
Revenue Management, a program under the Minerals Management Service) on
October 1, 2010, OMB approved a new series number for ONRR and
renumbered our ICRs. This ICR covers the paperwork requirements in the
regulations under title 30, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), parts
1210 and 1212 (previously 30 CFR parts 210 and 212). Also, this ICR
pertains to onshore and offshore royalty and production reporting on
oil, gas, and geothermal leases on Federal and Indian lands. The
revised title of this ICR is ``30 CFR Parts 1210 and 1212, Royalty and
Production Reporting.'' There are three forms associated with this
information collection.
DATES: Submit written comments on or before June 1, 2012.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments on this ICR to ONRR by any of the
following methods (please use ``ICR 1012-0004'' as an identifier in
your comment):
Electronically go to http://www.regulations.gov. In the
entry titled ``Enter Keyword or ID,'' enter ``ONRR-2011-0020,'' then
click ``Search.'' Follow the instructions to submit public comments.
ONRR will post all comments.
Mail comments to Armand Southall, Regulatory Specialist,
ONRR, P.O. Box 25165, MS 64000A, Denver, Colorado 80225-0165.
Hand-carry comments, or use an overnight courier service
to ONRR. Our courier address is Building 85, Room A-614, Denver Federal
Center, West 6th Ave. and Kipling St., Denver, Colorado 80225.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Armand Southall, Regulatory
Specialist, at (303) 231-3221, or email to armand.southall@onrr.gov.
You may also contact Mr. Southall to obtain copies, at no cost, of (1)
the ICR, (2) any associated forms, and (3) the regulations that require
the subject collection of information. You may also review the
information collection online at http://www.reginfo.gov/public/PRAMain.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title: 30 CFR Parts 1210 and 1212, Royalty and Production
Reporting.
OMB Control Number: 1012-0004.
Bureau Form Number: Forms MMS-2014, MMS-4054, and MMS-4058.
Note: ONRR will publish a rule updating our form numbers to
Forms ONRR-2014, ONRR-4054, and ONRR-4058.
Abstract: The Secretary of the United States Department of the
Interior is responsible for mineral resource development on Federal and
Indian lands and the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The Secretary is
required, by various laws, to manage mineral resource production from
Federal and Indian lands and the OCS, collect the royalties and other
mineral revenues due, and distribute the funds collected under those
laws. We have posted those laws pertaining to mineral leases on Federal
and Indian lands and the OCS at http://www.onrr.gov/Laws_R_D/PublicLawsAMR.htm.
The Secretary also has a trust responsibility to manage Indian
lands and seek advice and information from Indian beneficiaries. ONRR
performs the minerals revenue management functions and assists the
Secretary in carrying out the Department's trust responsibility for
Indian lands.
Effective October 1, 2010, ONRR reorganized and transferred their
regulations from chapter II to chapter XII in title 30 of the Code of
Federal Regulations (CFR), resulting in a change to our citations. You
can find the information collections covered in this ICR at 30 CFR part
1210, subparts B, C, and D, which pertain to production and royalty
reports; and part 1212, subpart B, which pertains to recordkeeping of
reports and files. All data reported is subject to subsequent audit and
adjustment.
General Information
When a company or an individual enters into a lease to explore,
develop, produce, and dispose of minerals from Federal or Indian lands,
that company or individual agrees to pay the lessor a share in an
amount or value of production from the leased lands. The lessee, or his
designee, is required to report various kinds of information to the
lessor relative to the disposition of the leased minerals.
The ONRR financial accounting system is an integrated computer
system that includes royalty, rental, bonus, and other payments; sales
volumes and values; and royalty values as submitted by reporters. In
the system, ONRR compares production volumes with royalty volumes to
verify that reporters reported and paid proper royalties for the
minerals produced. Additionally, we share the data electronically with
the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Bureau of Land
Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Tribal and State governments
so they can perform their lease management responsibilities.
We use the information collected in this ICR to ensure that royalty
is appropriately paid, based on accurate production accounting on oil,
gas, and geothermal resources produced from Federal and Indian leases.
The requirement to report accurately and timely is mandatory. Please
refer to the
[[Page 19705]]
chart for all reporting requirements and associated burden hours.
Royalty Reporting
The regulations require payors (reporters) to report and to remit
royalties on oil, gas, and geothermal resources produced from leases on
Federal and Indian lands. The following form is used for royalty
reporting:
Form MMS-2014, Report of Sales and Royalty Remittance. Reporters
submit this form monthly to report royalties on oil, gas, and
geothermal leases, certain rents, and other lease-related transactions
(e.g., transportation and processing allowances, lease adjustments, and
quality and location differentials).
Production Reporting
The regulations require operators (reporters) to submit production
reports if they operate a Federal or Indian onshore or offshore oil and
gas lease, or federally approved unit or communitization agreement. The
ONRR financial accounting system tracks minerals produced from Federal
and Indian lands, from the point of production to the point of
disposition, or royalty determination, and/or point of sale. The
reporters use the following forms for production accounting and
reporting:
Form MMS-4054, Oil and Gas Operations Report (OGOR). Reporters
submit this form monthly for all production reporting for Outer
Continental Shelf, Federal, and Indian leases. ONRR compares the
production information with sales and royalty data that reporters
submit on Form MMS-2014 to ensure that the latter reported and paid the
proper royalties on the oil and gas production to ONRR. ONRR uses the
information from OGOR parts A, B, and C to track all oil and gas from
the point of production to the point of first sale, or other
disposition.
Form MMS-4058, Production Allocation Schedule Report (PASR).
Reporters submit this form monthly. The facility operators manage the
facilities and measurement points where they commingle the production
from an offshore Federal lease or metering point with production from
other sources before they measure it for royalty determination. ONRR
uses the data to determine if the payors reported reasonable sales.
OMB Approval
We will request OMB approval to continue to collect this
information. If ONRR does not collect this information, this would
limit the Secretary's ability to discharge fiduciary duties and may
also result in loss of royalty payments. We protect the proprietary
information that it receives and do not collect items of a sensitive
nature. It is mandatory that the reporters submit Forms MMS-2014, MMS-
4054, and MMS-4058.
Frequency: Monthly.
Estimated Number and Description of Respondents: 3,870 oil, gas,
and geothermal reporters.
Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping ``Hour'' Burden:
337,933 hours.
We have changed our estimates of the number of respondents due to
updated data.
We have not included in our estimates certain requirements
performed in the normal course of business, considered as usual and
customary. We display the estimated annual burden hours by CFR section
and paragraph in the following chart.
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Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping ``Non-hour'' Cost
Burden: We have not identified a ``non-hour'' cost burden associated
with the collection of information.
Public Disclosure Statement: The PRA (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.)
provides that an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not
required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays
a currently valid OMB control number.
Comments: Before submitting an ICR to OMB, PRA Section
3506(c)(2)(A) requires each agency to ``* * * provide 60-day notice in
the Federal Register * * * and otherwise consult with members of the
public and affected agencies concerning each proposed collection of
information * * *.'' Agencies must specifically solicit comments to:
(a) Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is
necessary for the agency to perform its
[[Page 19711]]
duties, including whether the information is useful; (b) evaluate the
accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the proposed
collection of information; (c) enhance the quality, usefulness, and
clarity of the information collected; and (d) minimize the burden on
the respondents, including the use of automated collection techniques
or other forms of information technology.
The PRA also requires agencies to estimate the total annual
reporting ``non-hour cost'' burden to respondents or recordkeepers
resulting from the collection of information. If you have costs to
generate, maintain, and disclose this information, you should comment
and provide your total capital and startup cost components or annual
operation, maintenance, and purchase of service components. You should
describe the methods that you use to estimate (1) major cost factors,
including system and technology acquisition, (2) expected useful life
of capital equipment, (3) discount rate(s), and (4) the period over
which you incur costs. Capital and startup costs include, among other
items, computers and software that you purchase to prepare for
collecting information and monitoring, sampling, and testing equipment,
and record storage facilities. Generally, your estimates should not
include equipment or services purchased: (i) Before October 1, 1995;
(ii) to comply with requirements not associated with the information
collection; (iii) for reasons other than to provide information or keep
records for the Federal Government; or (iv) as part of customary and
usual business, or private practices.
We will summarize written responses to this notice and address them
in our ICR submission for OMB approval, including appropriate
adjustments to the estimated burden. We will provide a copy of the ICR
to you, without charge, upon request. We also will post the ICR at
http://www.onrr.gov/Laws_R_D/FRNotices/FRInfColl.htm.
Public Comment Policy: We will post all comments, including names
and addresses of respondents, at http://www.regulations.gov. Before
including your address, phone number, email address, or other personal
identifying information in your comment, be advised that your entire
comment--including your personal identifying information--may be made
publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to
withhold from public view your personal identifying information, we
cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.
Office of the Secretary, Information Collection Clearance Officer:
Laura Dorey (202) 208-2654.
Dated: March 23, 2012.
Gregory J. Gould,
Director, Office of Natural Resources Revenue.
[FR Doc. 2012-7786 Filed 3-30-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-T2-P