[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 14 (Monday, January 22, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3018-3019]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-00970]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Office of Natural Resources Revenue

[Docket No. ONRR-2011-0002; DS63644000 DR2000000.CH7000 189D0102R2]


States' Decisions on Participating in Accounting and Auditing 
Relief for Federal Oil and Gas Marginal Properties

AGENCY: Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR), Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: 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 2018, we provide this notice of the affected States' 
decisions to allow one or both types of relief.

DATES: January 1, 2018.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lindsay Goldstein, Market and Spatial 
Analysis Office, at (303) 231-3301; or email to 
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#9bf7f2f5ffe8fae2b5fcf4f7ffe8effef2f5dbf4f5e9e9b5fcf4ed"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="422e2b2c2631233b6c252d2e263136272b2c022d2c30306c252d34">[email protected]</span></a>.

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 
(RSFA) (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

[[Page 3019]]

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 2018 properties must produce less than 1,000 barrels-
of-oil-equivalent (BOE) per year for the base period (July 1, 2016, 
through June 30, 2017). Annual reporting relief will begin January 1, 
2018, with the annual report and payment due February 28, 2019, or 
March 31, 2019, 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.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               Notification-based   Request-based relief
            State               relief (less than     (less than 15 BOE
                               1,000 BOE per year)    per well per day)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama.....................  No..................  No.
Arkansas....................  N/A.................  Yes.
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......................  No..................  No.
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 117(c) of RSFA, 
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).

Gregory J. Gould,
Director, Office of Natural Resources Revenue.
[FR Doc. 2018-00970 Filed 1-19-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4335-30-P


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