Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 197 / Wednesday, October 11, 2000 / Notices 60449

A plat representing the survey of the

Sixth Guide Meridian East, (west

boundary), the east and north

boundaries, and the subdivisional lines,

Township 33 North, Range 25 East of

the Gila and Salt River Meridian,

Arizona, accepted July 27, 2000 and

officially filed August 10, 2000.

This plat was prepared at the request

of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Navajo

Area Office.

A plat representing the survey of the

east and north boundaries, and the

subdivisional lines, Township 33 North,

Range 26 East of the Gila and Salt River

Meridian, Arizona, accepted July 31,

2000 and officially filed August 10,

2000.

This plat was prepared at the request

of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Navajo

Area Office.

A plat in two sheets, representing the

dependent resurvey of a portion of the

east boundary and a portion of the

subdivisional lines and the subdivision

of section 25, Township 10 North,

Range 6 West of the Gila and Salt River

Meridian, Arizona, accepted August 25,

2000 and officially filed September 1,

2000.

This plat was prepared at the request

of the Bureau of Land Management,

Phoenix Field Office.

A plat in three sheets, representing

the dependent resurvey of a portion of

the subdivisional lines and the metesand-bounds survey of the Mount

Trumbull Wilderness Area Boundary,

Township 35 North, Range 7 West of the

Gila and Salt River Meridian, Arizona

accepted September 18, 2000 and

officially filed September 22, 2000.

This plat was prepared at the request

of the Bureau of Land Management,

Arizona State Office.

A plat in three sheets, representing

the dependent resurvey of a portion of

the subdivisional lines and the metesand-bounds survey of the Mount

Trumbull Wilderness Area Boundary,

Township 34 North, Range 8 West of the

Gila and Salt River Meridian, Arizona,

accepted September 18, 2000 and

officially filed September 22, 2000.

This plat was prepared at the request

of the Bureau of Land Management,

Arizona State Office.

A plat in six sheets, representing the

dependent resurvey of a portion of the

south and east boundaries and a portion

of the subdivisional lines, the

subdivision of section 15 and the metesand-bounds survey of the Mount

Trumbull Wilderness Area Boundary,

Township 35 North, Range 8 West of the

Gila and Salt River Meridian, Arizona,

accepted September 5, 2000 and

officially filed September 15, 2000.

This plat was prepared at the request

of the Bureau of Land Management,

Arizona State Office.

A supplemental plat in two sheets,

Township 22 North, Range 18 West,

sections 9, 14, 15 and 23 of the Gila and

Salt River Meridian, Arizona, accepted

August 14, 2000 and officially filed

August 24, 2000.

This plat was prepared at the request

of the Bureau of Land Management,

Arizona State Office.

A plat representing the dependent

resurvey of a portion of the north

boundary, and a portion of the

subdivisional lines, the subdivision of

section 2 and the metes-and-bounds

survey in sections 2 and 11, Township

11 South, Range 25 West of the Gila and

Salt River Meridian, Arizona, accepted

May 15, 2000 and officially filed May

25, 2000.

This plat was prepared at the request

of the Bureau of Land Management,

Yuma Field Office.

These plats will immediately become

the basic records for describing the land

for all authorized purposes. These plats

have been placed in the open files and

are available to the public for

information only.

2. All inquires relation to these lands

should be sent to the Arizona State

Office, Bureau of Land Management,

222 N. Central Avenue, P.O. Box 1552,

Phoenix, Arizona 85001–1552.

Kenny D. Ravnikar,

Chief Cadastral Surveyor of Arizona.

[FR Doc. 00–26036 Filed 10–10–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310–32–P

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Minerals Management Service

Agency Information Collection

Activities: Proposed Collection;

Comment Request

AGENCY: Minerals Management Service

(MMS), Interior.

ACTION: Notice of extension of a

currently approved information

collection (OMB Control Number 1010–

0006).

SUMMARY: To comply with the

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995

(PRA), we are inviting comments on an

information collection request (ICR),

titled ‘‘30 CFR Part 256, Leasing of

Sulphur or Oil and Gas in the Outer

Continental Shelf.’’ We are preparing an

ICR, which we will submit to the Office

of Management and Budget (OMB) for

review and approval.

DATES: Submit written comments by

December 11, 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 regulations requiring the

collection of information at no cost.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Title: 30 CFR Part 256, Leasing of

Sulphur or Oil and Gas in the Outer

Continental Shelf.

OMB Control Number: 1010–0006.

Abstract: The Outer Continental Shelf

(OCS) Lands Act, as amended, 43 U.S.C.

1331 et seq., requires the Secretary of

the Interior to preserve, protect, and

develop offshore oil and gas resources;

to make such resources available to

meet the Nation’s energy needs as

rapidly as possible; to balance orderly

energy resource development with

protection of the human, marine, and

coastal environments; to ensure the

public a fair and equitable return on the

resources of the OCS; and to preserve

and maintain free enterprise

competition. The Energy Policy and

Conservation Act of 1975 (EPCA)

prohibits certain lease bidding

arrangements (42 U.S.C. 6213 (c)).

The Independent Offices

Appropriations Act of 1952 (IOAA), 31

U.S.C. 9701, authorizes Federal agencies

to recover the full cost of services that

provide special benefits. Under the

Department of the Interior’s (DOI) policy

implementing the IOAA, MMS is

required to charge the full cost for

services that provide special benefits or

privileges to an identifiable non-Federal

recipient above and beyond those that

60450 Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 197 / Wednesday, October 11, 2000 / Notices

accrue to the public at large.

Instruments of transfer of a lease or

interest are subject to cost recovery, and

MMS regulations specify filing fees for

these transfer applications.

The MMS uses the information

required by 30 CFR part 256 to

determine if applicants are qualified to

hold leases in the OCS. Specifically,

MMS uses the information to:

• Verify the qualifications of a bidder

on an OCS lease sale. Once the required

information is filed with MMS, a

qualification number is assigned to the

bidder so that duplicate information is

not required on subsequent filings.

• Develop the semiannual List of

Restricted Joint Bidders. This identifies

parties ineligible to bid jointly with

each other on OCS lease sales, under

limitations established by the EPCA.

• Ensure the qualification of

assignees. Once a lease is awarded, the

transfer of a lessee’s interest to another

qualified party must be approved by an

MMS regional director.

• Obtain information and

nominations on oil and gas leasing,

exploration, and development and

production. Early planning and

consultation ensure that all interests

and concerns are communicated to us

for future decisions in the leasing

process.

• Document that a leasehold or

geographical subdivision has been

surrendered by the record title holder.

• Verify that lessees have adequate

bonding coverage. Respondents must

submit their bonds certification forms:

Form MMS–2028, Outer Continental

Shelf Mineral Lessee’s and Operator’s

Bond and Act of Suretyship,’’ and Form

MMS–2028A, ‘‘Outer Continental Shelf

Mineral Lessee’s and Operator’s

Supplemental Plugging & Abandonment

Bond and Act of Suretyship.’’ The MMS

uses these documents to hold the surety

libel for the obligations and liability of

the principal/lessee or operator.

Responses are required to obtain or

retain a benefit. No questions of a

‘‘sensitive’’ nature are asked. The

individual responses to Calls for

Information are the only information

collected involving the protection of

confidentiality. The MMS will protect

specific individual replies from

disclosure as proprietary information

according to section 26 of the OCS

Lands Act and 30 CFR 256.10(d).

Frequency: The frequency of reporting

is ‘‘on occasion.’’

Estimated Number and Description of

Respondents: Approximately 130

Federal OCS oil and gas or sulphur

lessees, as well as the affected states and

local governments.

Estimated Annual Reporting and

Recordkeeping ‘‘Hour’’ Burden: The

currently approved’’ hour burden for

this information collection is a total of

17,856 hours. The major components of

this burden and burden per response

are:

• Submit qualification of bidders for

joint bids and statements/reports of

production (4.5 hours).

• Submit bids (1 hour).

• Submit joint lease agreements (4

hours).

• Execute forms MMS–2028 and

MMS–2028A (1⁄4 hour).

• Demonstrate ability to carry out

financial obligations, request approval

for other forms of security, or request

reduction in supplemental bond

requirements (4 hours).

• Provide plan to fund lease-specific

abandonment account and related

information (4 hours).

• Provide third-party guarantee,

indemnity agreement, related notices,

and annual report (8 hours).

• File application for assignment or

transfer for approval (5 hours).

• File required documents for record

purposes (1⁄2 hour)

• Request relinquishment of lease (5

hours).

Estimated Annual Reporting and

Recordkeeping ‘‘Non-Hour Cost’’

Burden: The currently approved ‘‘nonhour cost’’ burden for this information

collection is a total of $470,875. This

cost burden is for filing fees associated

with submitting requests for approval of

instruments of transfer ($185 per

application) or to file non-required

documents for record purposes ($25 per

filing).

Comments: 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.

Section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA

requires each agency ‘‘* * * to provide

notice * * * 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

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 to be 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. Other than the

filing fees, we have not identified any

non-hour cost burdens and 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, 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.

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. In calculating the

burden, we assumed that respondents

perform certain 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.

Dated: September 28, 2000.

E.P. Danenberger,

Chief, Engineering and Operations Division.

[FR Doc. 00–25765 Filed 10–10–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310–MR–W