[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 92 (Thursday, May 11, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Pages 30431-30433]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-11853]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Minerals Management Service


Agency Information Collection Activities: Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request

AGENCY: Minerals Management Service (MMS), Interior.

ACTION: Notice of a revision to a currently approved information 
collection (OMB Control Number 1010-0071).

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SUMMARY: As part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and 
respondent burden, MMS invites the public and other Federal agencies to 
comment on a proposal to revise the currently approved collection of 
information discussed below on relief or reduction in royalty rates. We 
intend to submit this collection of information to the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) for approval. The Paperwork Reduction Act 
of 1995 (PRA) 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.

DATES: Submit written comments by July 10, 2000.

ADDRESSES: Mail or hand carry comments to the Department of the 
Interior; Minerals Management Service; Attention: Rules Processing 
Team; Mail Stop 4024; 381 Elden Street; Herndon, Virginia 20170-4817. 
Our practice is to make comments, including names and home addresses of 
respondents, available for public review during regular business hours. 
Individual respondents may request that we withhold their home address 
from the rulemaking record, which we will honor to the extent allowable 
by law. There may be circumstances in which we would withhold from the 
record a respondent's identity, as allowable by the law. If you wish us 
to withhold your name and/or address, you must state this prominently 
at the beginning of your comment. However, we will not consider 
anonymous comments. We will make all submissions from organizations or 
businesses, and from individuals identifying themselves as 
representatives or officials of organizations or businesses, available 
for public inspection in their entirety.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Alexis London, Rules Processing Team, 
telephone (703) 787-1600. You may also contact Alexis London to obtain 
a copy of the collection of information at no cost.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Title: 30 CFR Part 203, Relief or Reduction in Royalty Rates.
    OMB Control Number: 1010-0071.
    Abstract: The Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Lands Act, as amended 
by Public Law 104-58, Deep Water Royalty Relief Act (DWRRA), gives the 
Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) the authority to reduce or 
eliminate royalty or any net profit share specified in OCS oil and gas 
leases to promote increased production.

[[Page 30432]]

The DWRRA also authorized the Secretary to suspend royalties when 
necessary to promote development or recovery of marginal resources on 
producing or non-producing leases in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) West of 
87 degrees, 30 minutes West longitude.
    Section 302 of the DWRRA provides that new production from a lease 
in existence on November 28, 1995, in a water depth of at least 200 
meters, and in the GOM west of 87 degrees, 30 minutes West longitude 
qualifies for royalty suspension in certain situations. To grant a 
royalty suspension, the Secretary must determine that the new 
production or development would not be economic in the absence of 
royalty relief. The Secretary must then determine the volume of 
production on which no royalty would be due in order to make the new 
production from the lease economically viable. This determination must 
be done on a case-by-case basis.
    In addition, Federal policy and statute require us to recover the 
cost of services that confer special benefits to identifiable non-
Federal recipients. The Independent Offices Appropriation Act (31 
U.S.C. 9701), OMB Circular A-25, and the Omnibus Appropriations Bill 
(Pub. L. 104-133, 110 Stat. 1321, April 26, 1996) authorize MMS to 
collect these fees to reimburse us for the cost to process applications 
or assessments.
    Regulations at 30 CFR part 203 implement these statutes and policy 
and require respondents to pay a fee to request royalty relief. Section 
30 CFR 203.3 states that, ``We will specify the necessary fees for each 
of the types of royalty-relief applications and possible MMS audits in 
a Notice to Lessees. We will periodically update the fees to reflect 
changes in costs as well as provide other information necessary to 
administer royalty relief.'' Our submission to OMB will request 
approval of revised application fees and establishment of a new 
category of applications (special relief for marginal operations) and 
associated fee. The fee revisions are based on our experience in 
administering the program over the past several years.
    Responses are required to obtain or retain a benefit. Proprietary 
information respondents submit is protected according to the Freedom of 
Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552) and its implementing regulations (43 CFR 
2) and 30 CFR 03.63(b) and 30 CFR 250.196. No items of a sensitive 
nature are collected.
    Frequency: The frequency is on occasion.
    Estimated Number and Description of Respondents: Approximately 130 
Federal OCS oil and gas lessees.
    Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping ``Hour'' Burden: The 
currently approved burden for this information collection is 14,704 
hours. Due to a decrease in the estimated number of applications 
submitted each year, we will be decreasing the annual burden to 4,855 
hours (refer to burden chart).
    Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping ``Non-Hour Cost'' 
Burden: There are two non-hour costs associated with this information 
collection. The currently approved non-hour cost burden is $1,833,250. 
Due to a decrease in the estimated number of applications submitted 
each year and the revised fee schedule, we will be decreasing the 
annual cost burden to $661,000. This estimate is based on:
    (a) Application and audit fees. The total annual estimated cost 
burden for these fees is $345,600 (refer to burden chart).
    (b) Cost of reports prepared by independent certified public 
accountants. Under Sec. 203.81, a report prepared by an independent 
certified public accountant (CPA) must accompany the application and 
post-production report (except expansion project, short form, and 
preview assessment applications are excluded). The OCS Lands Act 
applications will require this report only once; the DWRRA applications 
will require this report at two stages--with the application and post-
production development report for successful applicants. We estimate 
approximately 7 submissions each year at an average cost of $45,000 per 
report, for a total estimated annual cost burden of $315,000.

                                             Burden Breakdown Chart
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                                                              Application/Audit Fees
   Reporting or recordkeeping   --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  requirement 30 CFR Part 203           Annual responses           Hours per response      Annual burden hours
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                                             OCS Lands Act Reporting
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Application--leases that generate earnings that can't sustain continued production (end-of-life lease)..........
                                                       Application 2  x  $12,000 = $24,000*
                                                          Audit 1  x  $10,000 = $10,000
Application--special relief for marginal producing lease (expect less than 1 per year-new category).............
                                                       Application 1  x  $15,000 = $15,000*
                                                          Audit 1  x  $10,000 = $10,000
Sec.  203.55 Renounce relief arrangement (seldom, if ever will be used; minimal burden to prepare letter).......
Sec.  203.81 Required reports.............. Burden included with applications...................................
                                --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      OCS Lands Act Reporting Subtotal..........................................................................
                                                            Processing Fees = $59,000
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                                                 DWRAA Reporting
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Application--leases in designated areas of GOM deep water acquired in lease sale before 11/28/95 and are
 producing (deep water expansion project).
                                                       Application 1  x  $39,000 = $39,000
                                                                     No Audit
Application--leases in designated areas of deep water GOM, acquired in lease sale before 11/28/95 or after 11/28/
 2000, that have not produced (pre-act or post-2000 deep water leases).

[[Page 30433]]

 
                                                       Application 1  x  $49,000 = $49,000*
                                                          Audit 1  x  $25,000 = $25,000
Application--short form to add or assign pre-act lease..........................................................
                                                        Application 1  x  $1,000 = $1,000
                                                                     No Audit
Application--preview assessment (seldom if ever will be used as applicants opt for binding determination by MMS
 instead; minimal burden if used).
                                                        Application 1 x $46,600 = $46,600
                                                                     No Audit
Application--special relief for marginal expansion project or marginal non--producing lease (expect less than 1
 per year-new category).
                                                       Application 1  x  $49,000 = $49,000
                                                          Audit 1  x  $20,000 = $20,000
Redetermination.................................................................................................
                                                       Application 1  x  $32,000 = $32,000*
                                                          Audit 1  x  $25,000 = $25,000
Sec.  203.70 Submit fabricator's confirmation report............................................................
Sec.  203.70 Submit post-production development report..........................................................
Sec.  203.77 Renounce relief arrangement (seldom, if ever, will be used; minimal burden to prepare letter)......
Sec.  203.79(a) Request reconsideration of MMS field designation................................................
Sec.  203.79(c) Request extension of deadline to start construction.............................................
Sec.  203.81 Required reports...............Burden included with applications............0......................
                                --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      DWRRA Reporting Subtotal..................................................................................
                                                            Processing Fees = $286,600
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                                              Recordkeeping Burden
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sec.  203.91 Retain supporting cost records for post-production development/fabrication reports (records
 retained as usual/customary business practice; minimal burden to make available at MMS request.
                                --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Total Annual Burden.......................................................................................
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* CPA certification expense burden also imposed on applicant.

    Comments:3 We will summarize written responses to this notice and 
address them in our submission for OMB approval. As a result of your 
comments, we will make any necessary adjustments to the burden in our 
submission to OMB. In calculating the burden, we assumed that 
respondents perform many of the requirements in the normal course of 
their activities. We consider these to be usual and customary and took 
that into account in estimating the burden.
    (1) We specifically solicit your comments on the following 
questions:
    (a) Is the proposed collection of information necessary for us to 
properly perform our functions, and will it be useful?
    (b) Are the estimates of the burden hours of the proposed 
collection reasonable?
    (c) Do you have any suggestions that would enhance the quality, 
clarity, or usefulness of the information to be collected?
    (d) Is there a way to minimize the information collection burden on 
respondents, including through the use of appropriate automated 
electronic, mechanical, or other forms of information technology?
    (2) In addition, the PRA requires agencies to estimate the total 
annual reporting ``non-hour cost'' burden to respondents or 
recordkeepers resulting from the collection of information. In addition 
to the costs previously discussed, we need to know if you have other 
costs associated with the collection of this information for either 
total capital and startup cost components or annual operation, 
maintenance, and purchase of service components. Your estimates should 
consider the costs to generate, maintain, and disclose or provide the 
information. You should describe the methods you use to estimate major 
cost factors, including system and technology acquisition, expected 
useful life of capital equipment, discount rate(s), and the period over 
which you incur costs. Capital and startup costs include, among other 
items, computers and software you purchase to prepare for collecting 
information; monitoring, sampling, drilling, 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 Government; or (iv) as part of customary and usual 
business or private practices.
    MMS Information Collection Clearance Officer: Jo Ann Lauterbach, 
(202) 208-7744).

    Dated: May 2, 2000.
John V. Mirabella,
Acting Chief, Engineering and Operations Division.
[FR Doc. 00-11853 Filed 5-10-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-MR-P