[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 37 (Friday, February 23, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7016-7017]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-3949]



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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

De Minimis Amount for Recoupments on Federal Offshore Mineral 
Leases

AGENCY: Minerals Management Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of amount.

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SUMMARY: This notice establishes the amount below which a royalty payor 
is not required to follow the statutory recoupment procedures. The 
Minerals Management Service (MMS) issued regulations governing 
recoupment of overpayments on Federal offshore mineral leases. Those 
regulations provide that MMS will publish a notice establishing de 
minimis amounts where it is not cost effective to process the 
recoupment request.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Randall Drake, Financial Compliance 
Branch, Compliance Verification Division, Minerals Management Service, 
Royalty Management Program, P.O. Box 25165, MS-3670, Denver, Colorado, 
80225-0165, telephone number (303) 231-3139, fax number (303) 231-3372.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Royalty Management Program of the 
Minerals Management Service (MMS) established regulations at 30 CFR 
Part 230 (59 FR 38365, July 28, 1994, 

[[Page 7017]]
effective August 29, 1994) implementing Section 10 of the Outer 
Continental Shelf Lands Act, 43 U.S.C. Sec. 1339.
    Section 10 requires that requests for refunds or credits of excess 
payments on Federal offshore leases be authorized only if (1) a request 
for refund or credit is filed within 2 years after the making of the 
payment, and (2) 30 days expire after both Houses of Congress are 
notified of the refund request, 43 U.S.C. Sec. 1339.
    In the regulations, MMS identified certain transactions not subject 
to Section 10. Under one of those exceptions, the regulations at 30 CFR 
Sec. 230.461(h) permit payors to file credit adjustments for de minimis 
amounts without filing requests for refunds with MMS. Those rules 
provide that MMS periodically will publish in the Federal Register what 
the de minimis threshold is. By Federal Register notice (60 FR 20504) 
dated April 26, 1995, the threshold was established at $250. Based on 
the cost experience for fiscal year 1995, MMS is increasing the de 
minimis threshold to $2,500. From recent experience, this would reduce 
the number of refund requests MMS processes from 1900 to 900 annually. 
It also should be recognized that the $2,500 de minimis threshold is 
applicable only to OCS leases which produce large volumes of oil and 
gas relative to onshore leases.
    Under these procedures, payors may make credit adjustments for 
$2,500 or less for each Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) lease and report 
month without filing a request with MMS. A credit adjustment for a 
lease within a unit may exceed $2,500 of credits during 1 report month, 
provided the net credit adjustment for that month considering all 
positive and negative adjustments for leases in the unit is less than 
$2,500. For example, if leases A and B are part of a unit, a payor may 
submit a credit adjustment of $10,000 for lease A and a payment of 
$8,000 for lease B within the same report month. Since the two leases 
within the unit net to a credit of $2,000, the payor is within the de 
minimis amount. As provided by the regulations, the overpayment 
recoupments must be made within 2 years of the date MMS received the 
payment.

    Dated: February 15, 1996.
James W. Shaw,
Associate Director for Royalty Management.
[FR Doc. 96-3949 Filed 2-22-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-MR-P