1654 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 7 / Tuesday, January 12, 2010 / Notices 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Minerals Management Service 

[Docket No. MMS–2009–MRM–0017] 

States’ Decisions on Participating in 

Accounting and Auditing Relief for 

Federal Oil and Gas Marginal 

Properties 

AGENCY: Minerals Management Service, 

Interior. 

ACTION: Notice of States’ decisions to 

participate or not participate in 

accounting and auditing relief for 

Federal oil and gas marginal properties 

located within the States’ boundaries for 

calendar year 2010. 

SUMMARY: The Minerals Management 

Service (MMS) published final 

regulations on September 13, 2004 (69 

FR 55076), codified at sections 204.200 

through 204.215 of title 30 of the Code 

of Federal Regulations (CFR), to provide 

two types of accounting and auditing 

relief for Federal onshore or Outer 

Continental Shelf lease production from 

marginal properties. These regulations 

require MMS to publish in the Federal 

Register the decisions of the States 

concerned to allow or not allow one or 

both forms of relief allowed by the 

regulations. As required by the 

regulations, MMS provided States 

receiving a portion of the Federal 

royalties with a list of qualifying 

marginal Federal oil and gas properties 

located in the States so that each 

affected State could decide whether to 

participate in one or both relief options. 

For calendar year 2010, this notice 

provides the decisions by the States 

concerned to allow one or both types of 

relief. 

DATE: Effective January 1, 2010. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Mary Williams, Manager, Western Audit 

& Compliance Management, telephone 

(303) 231–3403, FAX (303) 231–3744, 

e-mail to mary.williams@mms.gov, or 

mail to P.O. Box 25165, MS 62200B, 

Denver Federal Center, Denver, 

Colorado 80225–0165. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

The regulations implement certain 

provisions of section 7 of the Federal 

Oil and Gas Royalty Simplification and 

Fairness Act of 1996 (30 U.S.C. 1726) 

and provide two options for relief: (1) 

Notification-based relief for annual 

reporting, and (2) other requested relief, 

as proposed by industry and approved 

by MMS and the State concerned. The 

regulations require that MMS publish a 

list of the States and their decisions 

regarding marginal property relief by 

December 1 of each year. 

To qualify for the first relief option 

(notification-based relief) for calendar 

year 2010, properties must have 

produced less than 1,000 barrels-of-oilequivalent (BOE) per year for the base 

period (July 1, 2008, through June 30, 

2009). Annual reporting relief will begin 

January 1, 2010, with the annual report 

and payment due February 28, 2011; or 

March 31, 2011, 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 204.4(c). 

The following table shows the States 

that have marginal properties, where a 

portion of the royalties are shared 

between the State and MMS, and the 

States’ decisions to allow one or both 

forms of relief. 

State Notification-based relief (less than 1,000 BOE per year) 

Request-based relief 

(less than 15 BOE per 

well per day) 

Alabama .............................................................................. No ....................................................................................... No. 

California ............................................................................. No ....................................................................................... No. 

Colorado ............................................................................. No ....................................................................................... No. 

Kansas ................................................................................ No ....................................................................................... No. 

Louisiana ............................................................................ Yes ..................................................................................... Yes. 

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 ...................................................................... Yes ..................................................................................... No. 

Texas .................................................................................. No ....................................................................................... No. 

Utah .................................................................................... No ....................................................................................... No. 

Wyoming ............................................................................. Yes ..................................................................................... No. 

Federal oil and gas properties located 

in all other States, where a portion of 

the royalties is not shared with the 

State, are eligible for relief if they 

qualify as marginal under this rule. The 

MMS believes this covers any 

exceptions under section 117(c) of 

RSFA. For information on how to obtain 

relief, please refer to the rule, which you 

can view on our MMS Web site at 

http://www.mrm.mms.gov/Laws_R_D/ 

FRNotices/AC30.htm. 

Unless the information 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 (5 U.S.C. 552 et seq.) 

(FOIA). If applicable, please highlight 

the proprietary portions, including any 

supporting documentation, or mark the 

page(s) that contain proprietary data. 

Proprietary information is protected by 

the Trade Secrets Act (18 U.S.C. 1905); 

FOIA, Exemption 4; and Department 

regulations (43 CFR, part 2). 

Dated: December 17, 2009. 

Gregory J. Gould, 

Associate Director for Minerals Revenue 

Management. 

[FR Doc. 2010–321 Filed 1–11–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4310–MR–P 

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