[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 11 (Friday, January 16, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Page 2442]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-00608]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Office of Natural Resources Revenue
[Docket No. ONRR-2011-0002; DS63610000 DR2PS0000.CH7000 156D0102R2]
States' Decisions on Participating in Accounting and Auditing
Relief for Federal Oil and Gas Marginal Properties
AGENCY: Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR), Interior.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: Final regulations that ONRR published on September 13, 2004
(69 FR 55076), provide two types of accounting and auditing relief for
Federal onshore or Outer Continental Shelf lease production from
marginal properties. As the regulations require, ONRR provided a list
of qualifying marginal Federal oil and gas properties to States that
received a portion of Federal royalties. Each State then decided
whether to participate in one or both relief options. For calendar year
2015, we provide in this notice the affected States' decisions to allow
one or both types of relief.
DATES: Effective January 1, 2015.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Maroya Faied, Economic and Market
Analysis office, at (303) 231-3744; or email at [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The regulations, codified at 30 CFR part
1204, subpart C, implement certain provisions of section 7 of the
Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Simplification and Fairness Act of 1996
(RSFA) (30 U.S.C. 1726), which allows States to relieve the lessees of
marginal properties from certain reporting, accounting, and auditing
requirements. States make an annual determination of whether or not to
allow relief. Two options for relief are provided: (1) Notification-
based relief for annual reporting and (2) other requested relief, as
industry proposed and ONRR and the affected State approved. The
regulations require ONRR to publish by December 1 of each year a list
of the States and their decisions regarding marginal property relief.
To qualify for the first relief option (notification-based relief)
for calendar year 2015, properties must produce less than 1,000
barrels-of-oil-equivalent (BOE) per year for the base period (July 1,
2013, through June 30, 2014). Annual reporting relief will begin
January 1, 2015, with the annual report and payment due February 28,
2016, or March 31, 2016, if you have an estimated payment on file. To
qualify for the second relief option (other requested relief), the
combined equivalent production of the marginal properties during the
base period must equal an average daily well production of less than 15
BOE per well, per day calculated under 30 CFR 1204.4(c).
The following table shows the States that have qualifying marginal
properties and the States' decisions to allow one or both forms of
relief.
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Notification-based Request-based
State relief (less than relief (less than
1,000 BOE per year) 15 BOE per well per
-------------------------------------------------------------day)-------
Alabama....................... No................. No.
Arkansas...................... No................. Yes.
California.................... No................. No.
Colorado...................... No................. No.
Kansas........................ No................. No.
Louisiana..................... Yes................ Yes.
Michigan...................... Yes................ Yes.
Mississippi................... No................. No.
Montana....................... No................. No.
Nebraska...................... No................. Yes.
Nevada........................ No................. No.
New Mexico.................... No................. Yes.
North Dakota.................. Yes................ Yes.
Oklahoma...................... No................. No.
South Dakota.................. No................. No.
Utah.......................... No................. No.
Wyoming....................... Yes................ No.
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Federal oil and gas properties located in all other States where
ONRR does not share a portion of Federal royalties with the State are
eligible for relief if they qualify as marginal under the regulations
(See section 117(c) of RSFA (30 U.S.C. 1726(c))). For information on
how to obtain relief, please refer to 30 CFR 1204.205 or to the
published rule, which you may view at www.onrr.gov/Laws_R_D/FRNotices/AC30.htm.
Unless the information that ONRR received is proprietary data, all
correspondence, records, or information that we receive in response to
this notice may be subject to disclosure under the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) (5 U.S.C. 552 et seq.). If applicable, please
highlight the proprietary portions, including any supporting
documentation, or mark the page(s) that contain proprietary data. We
protect the proprietary information under the Trade Secrets Act (18
U.S.C. 1905); FOIA, Exemption 4 (5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4)); and Department
regulations (43 CFR part 2).
Dated: January 5, 2015.
Gregory J. Gould,
Director, Office of Natural Resources Revenue.
[FR Doc. 2015-00608 Filed 1-15-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4335-30-P