[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 156 (Friday, August 11, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Pages 49257-49260]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-20079]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Minerals Management Service


Agency Information Collection Activities: Submitted for Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) Review; Comment Request

AGENCY: Minerals Management Service (MMS), Interior.

ACTION: Notice of a revision to a currently approved information 
collection (OMB Control Number 1010-0071).

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SUMMARY: To comply with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), we 
are submitting to OMB for review and approval an information collection 
request (ICR), titled ``30 CFR Part 203, Relief or Reduction in Royalty 
Rates.'' We are also soliciting comments from the public on this ICR.

[[Page 49258]]


DATE: Submit written comments by September 11, 2000.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments directly to the Office of 
Information and Regulatory Affairs, OMB, Attention: Desk Officer for 
the Department of the Interior (1010-0071), 725 17th Street, NW., 
Washington, DC 20503. Mail or hand carry a copy of your comments to the 
Department of the Interior; Minerals Management Service; Attention: 
Rules Processing Team; Mail Stop 4024; 381 Elden Street; Herndon, 
Virginia 20170-4817.
    Our practice is to make comments, including names and home 
addresses of respondents, available for public review during regular 
business hours. Individual respondents may request that we withhold 
their home address from the rulemaking record, which we will honor to 
the extent allowable by law. There may be circumstances in which we 
would withhold from the record a respondent's identity, as allowable by 
the law. If you wish us to withhold your name and/or address, you must 
state this prominently at the beginning of your comment. However, we 
will not consider anonymous comments. We will make all submissions from 
organizations or businesses, and from individuals identifying 
themselves as representatives or officials of organizations or 
businesses, available for public inspection in their entirety.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Alexis London, Rules Processing Team, 
telephone (703) 787-1600. You may also contact Alexis London to obtain 
a copy at no cost of our submission to OMB, which includes the 
regulations that require this information to be collected.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: 30 CFR Part 203, Relief or Reduction in Royalty Rates.
    OMB Control Number: 1010-0071.
    Abstract: The Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Lands Act, as amended 
by Public Law 104-58, Deep Water Royalty Relief Act (DWRRA), gives the 
Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) the authority to reduce or 
eliminate royalty or any net profit share specified in OCS oil and gas 
leases to promote increased production. The DWRRA also authorized the 
Secretary to suspend royalties when necessary to promote development or 
recovery of marginal resources on producing or non-producing leases in 
the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) west of 87 degrees, 30 minutes West longitude.
    Section 302 of the DWRRA provides that new production from a lease 
in existence on November 28, 1995, in a water depth of at least 200 
meters, and in the GOM west of 87 degrees, 30 minutes West longitude 
qualifies for royalty suspension in certain situations. To grant a 
royalty suspension, the Secretary must determine that the new 
production or development would not be economic in the absence of 
royalty relief. The Secretary must then determine the volume of 
production on which no royalty would be due in order to make the new 
production from the lease economically viable. This determination must 
be done on a case-by-case basis.
    In addition, Federal policy and statute require us to recover the 
cost of services that confer special benefits to identifiable non-
Federal recipients. The Independent Offices Appropriation Act (31 
U.S.C. 9701), OMB Circular A-25, and the Omnibus Appropriations Bill 
(Pub. L. 104-133 110 Stat. 1321, April 26, 1996) authorize MMS to 
collect these fees to reimburse us for the cost to process applications 
or assessments.
    Regulations at 30 CFR part 203 implement these statutes and policy 
and require respondents to pay a fee to request royalty relief. Section 
30 CFR 203.3 states that, ``We will specify the necessary fees for each 
of the types of royalty-relief applications and possible MMS audits in 
a Notice to Lessees. We will periodically update the fees to reflect 
changes in costs, as well as provide other information necessary to 
administer royalty relief.'' Our submission to OMB requests approval of 
revised application fees and establishment of a new category of 
applications (special relief for marginal operations) and associated 
fee. The fee revisions are based on our experience in administering the 
program over the past several years.
    We use the information to make decisions on the economic viability 
of leases requesting a suspension or elimination of royalty or net 
profit share. These decisions have enormous monetary impacts to both 
the lessee and the Federal Government. Royalty relief can lead to 
increased production of natural gas and oil, creating profits for 
lessees and royalty and tax revenues for the Government that they might 
not otherwise receive. We could not make an informed decision without 
the collection of information required by 30 CFR part 203.
    Responses are required to obtain or retain a benefit. We protect 
proprietary information respondents submit according to the Freedom of 
Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552) and its implementing regulations (43 CFR 
part 2) and 30 CFR 203.63(b) and 30 CFR 250.196. No items of a 
sensitive nature are collected.
    On May 11, 2000, we published a Federal Register notice (65 FR 
30431) with the required 60-day comment period announcing that we would 
submit this collection of information to OMB for approval. We received 
no comments in response to the notice.
    Frequency: The frequency is on occasion.
    Estimated Number and Description of Respondents: Approximately 130 
Federal OCS oil and gas lessees.
    Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping ``Hour'' Burden: 8,650 
burden hours (refer to burden chart).
    Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping ``Non-Hour Cost'' 
Burden: There are two non-hour costs associated with this information 
collection, for a total of $661,000. This estimate is based on:
    (a) Application and audit fees. The total annual estimated cost 
burden for these fees is $345,600 (refer to burden chart).
    (b) Cost of reports prepared by independent certified public 
accountants (CPA). Under Sec. 203.81, a report prepared by an 
independent CPA must accompany the application and post-production 
report (except expansion project, short form, and preview assessment 
applications are excluded). The OCS Lands Act applications will require 
this report only once; the DWRRA applications will require this report 
at two stages--with the application and post-production development 
report for successful applicants. We estimate approximately seven 
submissions each year at an average cost of $45,000 per report, for a 
total estimated annual cost burden of $315,000.

[[Page 49259]]



                                             Burden Breakdown Chart
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Reporting or recordkeeping requirement 30                                                          Annual burden
               CFR part 203                     Annual responses           Hours per response          hours
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                                             OCS Lands Act Reporting
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Application/Audit fees
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Application--leases that generate          2 Applications............  100 hours................             200
 earnings that can't sustain continued
 production (end-of-life lease).
                                                            Application 2  x  $12,000 = $24,000 *
                                                                Audit 1  x  $10,000 = $10,000
Application--special relief for marginal   1 Application.............  250 hours................             250
 producing lease (expect less than 1 per
 year-new category).
                                                            Application 1  x  $15,000 = $15,000 *
                                                                Audit 1  x  $10,000 = $10,000
Sec.  203.55--Renounce relief arrangement  1 Letter..................  1 hour...................               1
 (seldom, if ever will be used; minimal
 burden to prepare letter).
Sec.  203.81, 203.83 through 203.89--                Burden included with applications.                        0
 Required reports.
    OCS Lands Act Reporting Subtotal.....  4 responses...............  N/A......................             451
                                                                  Processing Fees = $59,000
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                                                 DWRAA Reporting
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Application--leases in designated areas    1 Application.............  2,000 hours..............           2,000
 of GOM deep water acquired in lease sale
 before 11/28/95 and are producing (deep
 water expansion project).
                                                             Application 1  x  $39,000 = $39,000
                                                                          No Audit
Application--leases in designated areas    1 Application.............  2,000 hours..............           2,000
 of deep water GOM, acquired in lease
 sale before 11/28/95 or after 11/28/
 2000, that have not produced (pre-act or
 post-2000 deep water leases).
                                                            Application 1  x  $49,000 = $49,000*
                                                                Audit 1  x  $25,000 = $25,000
Application--short form to add or assign   1 Application.............  40 hours.................              40
 pre-act lease.
                                                              Application 1  x  $1,000 = $1,000
                                                                          No Audit
Application--preview assessment (seldom    1 Application.............  900 hours................             900
 if ever will be used as applicants opt
 for binding determination by MMS
 instead; minimal burden if used).
                                                             Application 1  x  $46,600 = $46,600
                                                                          No Audit
Application--special relief for marginal   1 Application.............  1,000 hours..............           1,000
 expansion project or marginal non-
 producing lease (expect less than 1 per
 year-new category).
                                                             Application 1  x  $49,000 = $49,000
                                                                Audit 1  x  $20,000 = $20,000
Redetermination..........................  1 Redetermination.........  500 hours................             500
                                                            Application 1  x  $32,000 = $32,000 *
                                                                Audit 1  x  $25,000 = $25,000
Sec.  203.70, 203.81, 203.90, 203.91--     2 Reports.................  20 hours.................              40
 Submit fabricator's confirmation report.
Sec.  203.70, 203.81, 203.90, 203.92--     2 Reports *...............  50 hours.................             100
 Submit post-production development
 report.
Sec.  203.77--Renounce relief arrangement  1 Letter..................  1 hour...................               1
 (seldom, if ever will be used; minimal
 burden to prepare letter).
Sec.  203.79(a)--Request reconsideration   4 Requests................  400 hours................           1,600
 of MMS field designation.
Sec.  203.79(c)--Request extension of      1 Request.................  2 hours..................               2
 deadline to start construction.
Sec.  203.81, 203.83 thru 203.89--                    Burden included with applications                        0
 Required reports.
    DWRRA Reporting Subtotal.............  13 Reponses...............  N/A......................           8,183
                                                                 Processing Fees = $286,600
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                                              Recordkeeping Burden
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Sec.  203.91--Retain supporting cost       2 Record-keepers..........  8........................              16
 records for post-production development/
 fabrication reports (records retained as
 usual/customary business practice;
 minimal burden to make available).
      Total Annual Burden................  19 Responses..............  N/A......................          8,650
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* CPA certification expense burden also imposed on applicant.

    Comments: 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. Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA requires each agency 
``* * * to provide notice * * * and otherwise consult with members of 
the public and affected agencies concerning each proposed collection of 
information * * *''

[[Page 49260]]

Agencies must specifically solicit comments to: (a) evaluate whether 
the proposed collection of information is necessary for the agency to 
perform its 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 to be collected; and (d) 
minimize the burden on the respondents, including the use of automated 
collection techniques or other forms of information technology.
    If you wish to comment in response to this notice, send your 
comments directly to the offices listed under the ADDRESSES section of 
this notice. The OMB has up to 60 days to approve or disapprove the 
information collection but may respond after 30 days. Therefore, to 
ensure maximum consideration, OMB should receive public comments by 
September 11, 2000.
    MMS Information Collection Clearance Officer: Jo Ann Lauterbach, 
(202) 208-7744.

    Dated: July 26, 2000.
E.P. Danenberger,
Chief, Engineering and Operations Division.
[FR Doc. 00-20079 Filed 8-10-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-MR-U