[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 160 (Friday, August 18, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 47793-47795]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-13694]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Energy Information Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request

AGENCY: Energy Information Administration (EIA), Department of Energy 
(DOE).

ACTION: Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request.

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SUMMARY: The EIA is soliciting comments on the proposed revisions to 
and three-year extension of the Oil and Gas Reserves System Surveys, 
Form EIA-23 ``Annual Survey of Domestic Oil and Gas Reserves,'' Form 
EIA-23P, ``Oil and Gas Well Operator List Update Report,'' and EIA-64A, 
``Annual Report of the Origin of Natural Gas Liquids Production''.

DATES: Comments must be filed by October 17, 2006. If you anticipate 
difficulty in submitting comments within that period, contact the 
person listed below as soon as possible.

[[Page 47794]]


ADDRESSES: Send comments to Mr. Rafi Zeilnalpour at U.S. Department of 
Energy, Energy Information Administration, Reserves and Production 
Division, 1999 Bryan Street, Suite 1110, Dallas, Texas 75201-6801. To 
ensure receipt of the comments by the due date, submission by fax (214-
7206155) or e-mail ([email protected]) is recommended. 
Alternatively, Mr. Rafi Zeilnalpour may be contacted by telephone at 
(214-720-6191).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
copies of any forms and instructions should be directed to Mr. Rafi 
Zeilnalpour at the address listed above.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
II. Current Actions
III. Request for Comments

I. Background

    The Federal Energy Administration Act of 1974 (Pub. L. 93-275, 15 
U.S.C. 761 et seq.) and the DOE Organization Act (Pub. L. 95-91, 42 
U.S.C. 7101 et seq.) require the EIA to carry out a centralized, 
comprehensive, and unified energy information program. This program 
collects, evaluates, assembles, analyzes, and disseminates information 
on energy resource reserves, production, demand, technology, and 
related economic and statistical information. This information is used 
to assess the adequacy of energy resources to meet near and longer term 
domestic demands.
    The EIA, as part of its effort to comply with the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, 44 U.S.C. Chapter 35), provides 
the general public and other Federal agencies with opportunities to 
comment on collections of energy information conducted by or in 
conjunction with the EIA. Any comments received help the EIA to prepare 
data requests that maximize the utility of the information collected, 
and to assess the impact of collection requirements on the public. 
Also, the EIA will later seek approval by the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) under Section 3507(a) of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995.
    Operators of crude oil and natural gas wells are the target 
respondents of Forms EIA-23 and EIA-23P. There are two versions of Form 
EIA-23. Large operators (those that produce 1.5 million barrels or more 
of crude oil or 15 billion cubic feet or more of natural gas per year) 
and intermediate operators (those that produce at least 400,000 barrels 
of crude oil or 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per year, but less 
than large operators) file Form EIA-23L. Small operators (those that 
produce less than intermediate operators) file Form 23S. Respondents 
report volumes of crude oil, associated-dissolved natural gas, non-
associated natural gas, lease condensate production, reserves and 
revisions to previous year reports, discoveries, extensions, sales, 
acquisitions, and non-producing reserves for each individual operated 
field without regard to interest ownership. (Individual field 
information is requested from large and intermediate operators; samples 
of small operators are requested to submit less detailed information.) 
The majority of small operators are not asked to report annually on 
Form EIA-23. The selected sample of small operators provide production 
and available reserves information for crude oil, total natural gas and 
lease condensate at a State or geographic subdivision level.
    Form EIA-23P is a postcard form used to collect information on 
possible oil and gas well operators that may be included in future EIA-
23 surveys. Information obtained from Form EIA-23P is used to confirm 
and/or update general operator information, primarily about small 
companies with which no contact has been made in the last few years.
    Operators of natural gas plants are the target respondents of the 
Form EIA-64A. The volumes of natural gas processed, natural gas liquids 
produced, resultant shrinkage of the natural gas and natural gas used 
in processing are requested of all natural gas plant operators.
    In response to Public Law 95-91 Section 657, estimates of U.S. oil 
and gas reserves are to be reported annually. Many U.S. government 
agencies have an interest in the definitions of proved oil and gas 
reserves and the quality, reliability and usefulness of estimates of 
reserves. Among these are the Energy Information Administration (EIA), 
Department of Energy; Minerals Management Service (MMS), Department of 
Interior; Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Department of the Treasury; 
and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Each of these 
organizations has specific purposes for collecting, using, or 
estimating proved reserves. The EIA has a congressional mandate to 
provide accurate annual estimates of U.S. proved crude oil, natural gas 
and natural gas liquids reserves and publishes an annual reserves 
report to meet this requirement. The MMS maintains estimates of proved 
reserves to carry out their responsibilities in leasing, collecting 
royalty payments and regulating the activities of oil and gas companies 
on Federal lands and water and is second only to the IRS in generating 
Federal revenue. For the IRS, proved reserves and occasionally probable 
reserves are an essential component of calculating taxes for companies 
owning or producing oil and gas. The SEC requires publicly traded 
petroleum companies to annually file a reserves statement as part of 
their 10-K filing. The basic purpose of the 10-K filing is to give the 
investing public a clear and reliable financial basis to assess the 
relative value, as a financial asset, of a company's reserves, 
especially in comparison to other similar oil and gas companies.
    The Government also uses the resulting information to develop 
national and regional estimates of proved reserves of domestic crude 
oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids to facilitate national energy 
policy decisions. These estimates are essential to the development, 
implementation, and evaluation of energy policy and legislation. Data 
are used directly in the EIA annual publication, U.S. Crude Oil, 
Natural Gas and Natural Gas Liquids Reserves, and are incorporated into 
a number of other publications and analyses. Secondary publications 
that use the data include EIA's Annual Energy Review, Annual Energy 
Outlook, Petroleum Supply Annual and Natural Gas Annual.

II. Current Actions

    This notice is a three-year extension of Form EIA-23, ``Annual 
Survey of Domestic Oil and Gas Reserves'', Form EIA-23P, ``Oil and Gas 
Well Operator List Update Report'' and Form EIA-64A, ``Annual Report of 
the Origin of Natural Gas Liquids Production, and a small modification 
to Form EIA-23L.
    Form EIA-23P will be extended without modification. Currently 
available reliable State and other sources will be used to confirm and/
or update operator information thereby reducing the number of Form EIA-
23P mail-outs and consequent burden on respondents. Form EIA-23S and 
Form EIA-64A will also be extended without modification. Maintaining 
the list of currently active gas plants will be aided by reliable State 
and other sources thereby reducing the number of needed contacts with 
plant operators.
    Form EIA-23L will be extended with one minor modification. EIA is 
proposing that more detailed information be collected on the Form EIA-
23L for those fields which are producing oil and/or natural gas from 
sources previously or currently classified as uneconomical or 
technically unrecoverable. (Such

[[Page 47795]]

sources are often generically identified as ``nonconventional'' 
resources). This will be accomplished by requesting respondents to use 
Box No. 5 (MMS Code) in Section 2.1 on the Form EIA-23L to identify 
specific types of hydrocarbon reservoirs or hydrocarbon deposits by 
using an additional set of codes. This procedure of adding codes to the 
existing list of Mineral Management Service Codes has been used 
successfully since Report Year 1989 to identify volumes of coalbed 
methane production (natural gas produced from a coal reservoir) and 
coalbed methane proved reserves (natural gas proved reserves in a coal 
reservoir) by showing the code CB in Box No. 5. The additional codes 
will include SH for shale reservoirs and CH for chalk reservoirs. Other 
reservoirs will be placed in five classes of successively lower 
permeability: PH, PM, PT, PV, and PU, corresponding respectively to 
high, medium, tight, very tight and ultra-tight permeability. Most 
reservoirs currently considered ``conventional'' would fall into 
classes PH and PM and most reservoirs currently classified as tight 
would fall into class PT. Reserves in class PV are comparatively low 
but they are increasing; currently there may be no proved reserves in 
class PU.
    Some hydrocarbon deposits present special production problems not 
necessarily related to permeability and additional codes will be 
assigned. For example, ultra heavy oils and bitumens (oil sands) that 
typically have low gravity, high viscosity and do not flow at standard 
conditions would be designated by the code HV (high viscosity). Gas 
hydrates would be designated by the code GH and natural gas dissolved 
in subsurface brines would be designated by the code GB. Other 
categories may be added. No change in burden is anticipated by 
providing this information because the list of MMS codes which are 
currently reported in Box 5 is merely being expanded and no new data 
elements are being added to Form EIA-23L. The use of additional codes 
to identify new sources of production will provide valuable information 
of substantial analytical value.

III. Request for Comments

    Prospective respondents and other interested parties should comment 
on the actions discussed in item II. The following guidelines are 
provided to assist in the preparation of comments. In providing 
comments, please indicate to which form(s) your comments apply.

General Issues

    A. Is the proposed collection of information necessary for the 
proper performance of the functions of the agency and does the 
information have practical utility? Practical utility is defined as the 
actual usefulness of information to or for an agency, taking into 
account its accuracy, adequacy, reliability, timeliness, and the 
agency's ability to process the information it collects.
    B. What enhancements can be made to the quality, utility, and 
clarity of the information to be collected?

As a Potential Respondent to the Request for Information

    A. What actions could be taken to help ensure and maximize the 
quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of the information to be 
collected?
    B. Are the instructions and definitions clear and sufficient? If 
not, which instructions need clarification?
    C. Can the information be submitted by the due date?
    D. Public reporting burden for this collection is estimated as 
follows:

Form EIA-23S: 4 hours (small operators).

Form EIA-23L: 32 hours (intermediate operators); 160 hours (large 
operators).
Form EIA-23P: 15 minutes (all operators).
Form EIA-64A: 6 hours (natural gas plant operators).

The estimated burden includes the total time necessary to provide the 
requested information. In your opinion, how accurate is this estimate?
    E. The agency estimates that the only cost to a respondent is for 
the time it will take to complete the collection. Will a respondent 
incur any start-up costs for reporting, or any recurring annual costs 
for operation, maintenance, and purchase of services associated with 
the information collection?
    F. What additional actions could be taken to minimize the burden of 
this collection of information? Such actions may involve the use of 
automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology.
    G. Does any other Federal, State, or local agency collect similar 
information? If so, specify the agency, the data element(s), and the 
methods of collection.

As a Potential User of the Information To Be Collected

    A. What actions could be taken to help ensure and maximize the 
quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of the information 
disseminated?
    B. Is the information useful at the levels of detail to be 
collected?
    C. For what purpose(s) would the information be used? Be specific.
    D. Are there alternate sources for the information and are they 
useful? If so, what are their weaknesses and/or strengths?
    Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized 
and/or included in the request for OMB approval of the form. They also 
will become a matter of public record.

    Statutory Authority: Section 3507(h)(1) of the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13, 44 U.S.C. Chapter 35).

    Issued in Washington, DC, August 14, 2006.
Nancy Kirkendall,
Energy Information Administration.
 [FR Doc. E6-13694 Filed 8-17-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P