[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 36 (Tuesday, February 24, 1998)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 9171-9172]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-4610]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

43 CFR Parts 3100, 3106, 3130 and 3160

[AA-610-08-4111-2410]
RIN 1004-AC54


Oil and Gas Leasing; Onshore Oil and Gas Operations

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Proposed rule; notice of extension of public comment period.

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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) hereby gives notice that 
it is extending the public comment period on a Notice of Proposed Rule,

[[Page 9172]]

which was published in the Federal Register on January 13, 1998 (63 FR 
1936). The comment period for the proposed rule expires on March 16, 
1998. The proposed rule would clarify the responsibilities of oil and 
gas lessees for protecting Federal oil and gas resources from drainage 
by operations on nearby lands that would result in lower royalties to 
the Federal government. It would specify when the obligations of the 
lessee or operating rights owner to protect against drainage begin and 
end and specify what steps should be taken to determine if drainage is 
occurring. It also would clarify the obligation of the assignor and 
assignee for drainage obligations, well abandonment and environmental 
remediation when BLM approves an assignment of record title or 
operating rights. In response to requests from the public, BLM extends 
the comment period to May 15, 1998.

DATES: Submit comments by May 15, 1998.

ADDRESSES: You may submit your comments by any one of several methods. 
You may mail comments to the Bureau of Land Management, Administrative 
Record, 1849 C Street, N.W., Room 401LS, Washington, D.C. 20240. You 
may also comment via the Internet to [email protected]. Please 
submit comments as an ASCII file avoiding the use of special characters 
and any form of encryption. Please also include ``Attn: AC54'' and your 
name and return address in your Internet message. If you do not receive 
a confirmation from the system that we have received your Internet 
message, contact us directly at (202) 452-5030.
    Finally, you may hand-deliver comments to Bureau of Land Management 
at 1620 L Street, N.W., Room 401, Washington, D.C. Comments, including 
names and street addresses of respondents, will be available for public 
review at this address during regular business hours (7:45 a.m. to 4:15 
p.m.), Monday through Friday, except holidays. Individual respondents 
may request confidentiality, which BLM will consider on a case-by-case 
basis. If you wish to request that BLM consider withholding your name 
or street address from public review or from disclosure under the 
Freedom of Information Act, you must state this prominently at the 
beginning of your comment. Such requests will be honored to the extent 
allowed by law. All submissions from organizations or businesses, and 
from individuals identifying themselves as representatives or officials 
of organizations or businesses, will be made available for public 
inspection in their entirety.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Donnie Shaw of BLM's Fluid Minerals 
Group at (202) 452-0382.

    Dated: February 18, 1998.
Frank Bruno,
Acting Group Manager, Regulatory Affairs Group.
[FR Doc. 98-4610 Filed 2-23-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-84-P