[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 63 (Monday, April 2, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 19704-19711]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-7786]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Office of Natural Resources Revenue

[Docket No. ONRR-2011-0020]


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection, 
Comment Request

AGENCY: Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR), Interior.

ACTION: Notice of an extension of a currently approved information 
collection.

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SUMMARY: To comply with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), we 
are inviting comments on a collection of information requests that we 
will submit to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and 
approval. OMB formerly approved this information collection request 
(ICR) under OMB Control Number 1010-0139. After the Secretary of the 
Department of the Interior established ONRR (the former Minerals 
Revenue Management, a program under the Minerals Management Service) on 
October 1, 2010, OMB approved a new series number for ONRR and 
renumbered our ICRs. This ICR covers the paperwork requirements in the 
regulations under title 30, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), parts 
1210 and 1212 (previously 30 CFR parts 210 and 212). Also, this ICR 
pertains to onshore and offshore royalty and production reporting on 
oil, gas, and geothermal leases on Federal and Indian lands. The 
revised title of this ICR is ``30 CFR Parts 1210 and 1212, Royalty and 
Production Reporting.'' There are three forms associated with this 
information collection.

DATES: Submit written comments on or before June 1, 2012.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments on this ICR to ONRR by any of the 
following methods (please use ``ICR 1012-0004'' as an identifier in 
your comment):
     Electronically go to http://www.regulations.gov. In the 
entry titled ``Enter Keyword or ID,'' enter ``ONRR-2011-0020,'' then 
click ``Search.'' Follow the instructions to submit public comments. 
ONRR will post all comments.
     Mail comments to Armand Southall, Regulatory Specialist, 
ONRR, P.O. Box 25165, MS 64000A, Denver, Colorado 80225-0165.
     Hand-carry comments, or use an overnight courier service 
to ONRR. Our courier address is Building 85, Room A-614, Denver Federal 
Center, West 6th Ave. and Kipling St., Denver, Colorado 80225.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Armand Southall, Regulatory 
Specialist, at (303) 231-3221, or email to [email protected]. 
You may also contact Mr. Southall to obtain copies, at no cost, of (1) 
the ICR, (2) any associated forms, and (3) the regulations that require 
the subject collection of information. You may also review the 
information collection online at http://www.reginfo.gov/public/PRAMain.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: 30 CFR Parts 1210 and 1212, Royalty and Production 
Reporting.
    OMB Control Number: 1012-0004.
    Bureau Form Number: Forms MMS-2014, MMS-4054, and MMS-4058.

    Note: ONRR will publish a rule updating our form numbers to 
Forms ONRR-2014, ONRR-4054, and ONRR-4058.

    Abstract: The Secretary of the United States Department of the 
Interior is responsible for mineral resource development on Federal and 
Indian lands and the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The Secretary is 
required, by various laws, to manage mineral resource production from 
Federal and Indian lands and the OCS, collect the royalties and other 
mineral revenues due, and distribute the funds collected under those 
laws. We have posted those laws pertaining to mineral leases on Federal 
and Indian lands and the OCS at http://www.onrr.gov/Laws_R_D/PublicLawsAMR.htm.
    The Secretary also has a trust responsibility to manage Indian 
lands and seek advice and information from Indian beneficiaries. ONRR 
performs the minerals revenue management functions and assists the 
Secretary in carrying out the Department's trust responsibility for 
Indian lands.
    Effective October 1, 2010, ONRR reorganized and transferred their 
regulations from chapter II to chapter XII in title 30 of the Code of 
Federal Regulations (CFR), resulting in a change to our citations. You 
can find the information collections covered in this ICR at 30 CFR part 
1210, subparts B, C, and D, which pertain to production and royalty 
reports; and part 1212, subpart B, which pertains to recordkeeping of 
reports and files. All data reported is subject to subsequent audit and 
adjustment.

General Information

    When a company or an individual enters into a lease to explore, 
develop, produce, and dispose of minerals from Federal or Indian lands, 
that company or individual agrees to pay the lessor a share in an 
amount or value of production from the leased lands. The lessee, or his 
designee, is required to report various kinds of information to the 
lessor relative to the disposition of the leased minerals.
    The ONRR financial accounting system is an integrated computer 
system that includes royalty, rental, bonus, and other payments; sales 
volumes and values; and royalty values as submitted by reporters. In 
the system, ONRR compares production volumes with royalty volumes to 
verify that reporters reported and paid proper royalties for the 
minerals produced. Additionally, we share the data electronically with 
the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Bureau of Land 
Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Tribal and State governments 
so they can perform their lease management responsibilities.
    We use the information collected in this ICR to ensure that royalty 
is appropriately paid, based on accurate production accounting on oil, 
gas, and geothermal resources produced from Federal and Indian leases. 
The requirement to report accurately and timely is mandatory. Please 
refer to the

[[Page 19705]]

chart for all reporting requirements and associated burden hours.

Royalty Reporting

    The regulations require payors (reporters) to report and to remit 
royalties on oil, gas, and geothermal resources produced from leases on 
Federal and Indian lands. The following form is used for royalty 
reporting:
    Form MMS-2014, Report of Sales and Royalty Remittance. Reporters 
submit this form monthly to report royalties on oil, gas, and 
geothermal leases, certain rents, and other lease-related transactions 
(e.g., transportation and processing allowances, lease adjustments, and 
quality and location differentials).

Production Reporting

    The regulations require operators (reporters) to submit production 
reports if they operate a Federal or Indian onshore or offshore oil and 
gas lease, or federally approved unit or communitization agreement. The 
ONRR financial accounting system tracks minerals produced from Federal 
and Indian lands, from the point of production to the point of 
disposition, or royalty determination, and/or point of sale. The 
reporters use the following forms for production accounting and 
reporting:
    Form MMS-4054, Oil and Gas Operations Report (OGOR). Reporters 
submit this form monthly for all production reporting for Outer 
Continental Shelf, Federal, and Indian leases. ONRR compares the 
production information with sales and royalty data that reporters 
submit on Form MMS-2014 to ensure that the latter reported and paid the 
proper royalties on the oil and gas production to ONRR. ONRR uses the 
information from OGOR parts A, B, and C to track all oil and gas from 
the point of production to the point of first sale, or other 
disposition.
    Form MMS-4058, Production Allocation Schedule Report (PASR). 
Reporters submit this form monthly. The facility operators manage the 
facilities and measurement points where they commingle the production 
from an offshore Federal lease or metering point with production from 
other sources before they measure it for royalty determination. ONRR 
uses the data to determine if the payors reported reasonable sales.

OMB Approval

    We will request OMB approval to continue to collect this 
information. If ONRR does not collect this information, this would 
limit the Secretary's ability to discharge fiduciary duties and may 
also result in loss of royalty payments. We protect the proprietary 
information that it receives and do not collect items of a sensitive 
nature. It is mandatory that the reporters submit Forms MMS-2014, MMS-
4054, and MMS-4058.
    Frequency: Monthly.
    Estimated Number and Description of Respondents: 3,870 oil, gas, 
and geothermal reporters.
    Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping ``Hour'' Burden: 
337,933 hours.
    We have changed our estimates of the number of respondents due to 
updated data.
    We have not included in our estimates certain requirements 
performed in the normal course of business, considered as usual and 
customary. We display the estimated annual burden hours by CFR section 
and paragraph in the following chart.


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    Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping ``Non-hour'' Cost 
Burden: We have not identified a ``non-hour'' cost burden associated 
with the collection of information.
    Public Disclosure Statement: 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.
    Comments: Before submitting an ICR to OMB, PRA Section 
3506(c)(2)(A) requires each agency to ``* * * provide 60-day notice in 
the Federal Register * * * and otherwise consult with members of the 
public and affected agencies concerning each proposed collection of 
information * * *.'' Agencies must specifically solicit comments to: 
(a) Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary for the agency to perform its

[[Page 19711]]

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 collected; and (d) minimize the burden on 
the respondents, including the use of automated collection techniques 
or other forms of information technology.
    The PRA also requires agencies to estimate the total annual 
reporting ``non-hour cost'' burden to respondents or recordkeepers 
resulting from the collection of information. If you have costs to 
generate, maintain, and disclose this information, you should comment 
and provide your total capital and startup cost components or annual 
operation, maintenance, and purchase of service components. You should 
describe the methods that you use to estimate (1) major cost factors, 
including system and technology acquisition, (2) expected useful life 
of capital equipment, (3) discount rate(s), and (4) the period over 
which you incur costs. Capital and startup costs include, among other 
items, computers and software that you purchase to prepare for 
collecting information and monitoring, sampling, and testing equipment, 
and record storage facilities. Generally, your estimates should not 
include equipment or services purchased: (i) Before October 1, 1995; 
(ii) to comply with requirements not associated with the information 
collection; (iii) for reasons other than to provide information or keep 
records for the Federal Government; or (iv) as part of customary and 
usual business, or private practices.
    We will summarize written responses to this notice and address them 
in our ICR submission for OMB approval, including appropriate 
adjustments to the estimated burden. We will provide a copy of the ICR 
to you, without charge, upon request. We also will post the ICR at 
http://www.onrr.gov/Laws_R_D/FRNotices/FRInfColl.htm.
    Public Comment Policy: We will post all comments, including names 
and addresses of respondents, at http://www.regulations.gov. Before 
including your address, phone number, email address, or other personal 
identifying information in your comment, be advised that your entire 
comment--including your personal identifying information--may be made 
publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in your comment to 
withhold from public view your personal identifying information, we 
cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.
    Office of the Secretary, Information Collection Clearance Officer: 
Laura Dorey (202) 208-2654.

    Dated: March 23, 2012.
Gregory J. Gould,
Director, Office of Natural Resources Revenue.
[FR Doc. 2012-7786 Filed 3-30-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-T2-P