[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]


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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.

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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)
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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.
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    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