[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 41 (Friday, March 1, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7125-7126]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-03696]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Office of Natural Resources Revenue
[Docket No. ONRR-2011-0002; DS63644000 DR2000000.CH7000 190D1113RT]
States' Decisions on Participating in Accounting and Auditing
Relief for Federal Oil and Gas Marginal Properties
AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, Office of Natural Resources Revenue,
Interior.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR) regulations provide
two types of accounting and auditing relief for Federal onshore or
Outer Continental Shelf lease production from marginal properties. Each
year ONRR provides a list of qualifying marginal Federal oil and gas
properties to States that receive a portion of Federal royalties from
those properties. Each State then decides whether to participate in one
or both relief options. For calendar year 2019, we provide this notice
of the affected States' decisions to allow one or both types of relief.
DATES: January 1, 2019.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Robert Sudar, Market and Spatial
Analytics, CEVA, ONRR, at (303) 231-3511; or email to
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The regulations, codified at 30 CFR part
1204, subpart C, implement certain provisions of section 7 of the
Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Simplification and Fairness Act of 1996 (30
U.S.C. 1726), which allows States to relieve the lessees of marginal
properties from certain reporting, accounting, and auditing
requirements. States make an annual determination of whether or not to
allow relief. Two options for relief are authorized: (1) Notification-
based relief from cumulative royalty reports and payments, allowing
lessees or designees instead to file one annual report and make one
annual payment, and (2) other requested relief, as proposed by lessees
or designees and approved by ONRR, after consulting with the affected
State(s). The regulations require ONRR to publish no later than 30 days
before the beginning of the calendar year a list of the States and
their decisions regarding marginal property relief.
To qualify for the first relief option (notification-based relief)
for calendar year 2019, properties must produce less than 1,000
barrels-of-oil-equivalent (BOE) per year for the base period (July 1,
2017 through June 30, 2018). Annual reporting relief will begin January
1, 2019, with the annual report and
[[Page 7126]]
payment due February 28, 2020, or March 31, 2020 if you have an
estimated payment on file. To qualify for the second relief option
(other requested relief), the combined equivalent production of the
marginal properties during the base period must equal an average daily
well production of less than 15 BOE per well, per day calculated under
30 CFR 1204.4(c).
The following table shows the States that have qualifying marginal
properties and the States' decisions to allow one or both forms of
relief during calendar year 2019.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notification-based Request- based
relief (less than relief (less than
State 1,000 BOE per 15 BOE per well
year) per day)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama......................... No................ No.
Arkansas........................ N/A............... No.
California...................... No................ No.
Colorado........................ No................ No.
Kansas.......................... No................ No.
Louisiana....................... No................ No.
Michigan........................ Yes............... Yes.
Mississippi..................... No................ No.
Montana......................... No................ No.
Nebraska........................ No................ No.
Nevada.......................... Yes............... Yes.
New Mexico...................... No................ Yes.
North Dakota.................... Yes............... Yes.
Oklahoma........................ No................ No.
South Dakota.................... No................ No.
Utah............................ No................ No.
Wyoming......................... Yes............... No.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Federal oil and gas properties located in all other States where
ONRR does not share a portion of Federal royalties with the State are
eligible for relief if they qualify as marginal under 30 U.S.C.
1726(c). For information on how to obtain relief, please refer to 30
CFR 1204.205, which you may view at https://www.ecfr.gov/.
Unless the information that ONRR received is proprietary data, all
correspondence, records, or information that we receive in response to
this notice may be subject to disclosure under the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) (5 U.S.C. 552 et seq.). If applicable, please
highlight the proprietary portions, including any supporting
documentation, or mark the page(s) that contain proprietary data. We
protect the proprietary information under the Trade Secrets Act (18
U.S.C. 1905), FOIA Exemption 4 (5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4)), and the Department
of the Interior's FOIA regulations (43 CFR part 2).
James D. Steward,
Acting Director, for the Office of Natural Resources Revenue.
[FR Doc. 2019-03696 Filed 2-28-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4335-30-P