Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 75 / Tuesday, April 18, 2000 / Notices 20829

sensitive or critical environmental

impacts; (3) identification of reasonable

alternative transmission line routes and

substation sites; and (4) notifying

interested groups, individuals, and

agencies so that additional information

concerning these issues and concerns

can be obtained.

ADDRESSES: Comments should be sent to

Michael A. Taylor, Phoenix Field

Manager, Bureau of Land Management,

Phoenix Field Office, 2015 W. Deer

Valley Road, Phoenix, Arizona 85027.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Kathy Pedrick, Project Manager,

Phoenix Field Office, 2015 W. Deer

Valley Road, Phoenix, Arizona 85027,

(623) 580–5500.

Dated: April 5, 2000.

Margo E. Fitts,

Assistant Field Manager, Support Services.

[FR Doc. 00–9671 Filed 4–17–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310–32–M

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Minerals Management Service

Agency Information Collection

Activities: Submitted for Office of

Management and Budget Review;

Comment Request

AGENCY: Minerals Management Service

(MMS), Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: To comply with the

Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) (44

U.S.C. 3501 et seq.), we are notifying

you that we have submitted an

information collection request (ICR) to

the Office of Management and Budget

(OMB) for review and approval. We are

also soliciting your comments on this

ICR, which describes the information

collection, its expected costs and

burden, and how the data will be

collected.

DATES: Written comments should be

received on or before May 18, 2000.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments

directly to the Office of Information and

Regulatory Affairs, OMB, Attention:

Desk Officer for the Department of the

Interior (OMB Control Number 1010–

0129), 725 17th Street, NW,

Washington, DC 20503. Copies of these

comments should also be sent to us. The

U.S. Postal Service address is Minerals

Management Service, Royalty

Management Program, Rules and

Publications Staff, PO Box 25165, MS

3021, Denver, Colorado 80225–0165; the

courier address is Building 85, Room A–

613, Denver Federal Center, Denver,

Colorado 80225; and the email address

is RMP.comments@mms.gov. 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 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

comments. 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: For

questions concerning this collection of

information, please contact Anne Ewell,

RIK Study Team, telephone (703) 787–

1584. You may also obtain copies of this

collection of information at no cost by

contacting Jo Ann Lauterbach, MMS’s

Information Collection Clearance

Officer, at (202) 208–7744.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Title: Bids and Financial Statements

for Sale of Royalty Oil and Gas (RIK

Pilots).

OMB Control Number: 1010–0129.

Bureau Form Number: Form MMS–

4440, Summary of Receipt and Delivery

Volumes.

Abstract: The Secretary of the Interior,

under the Mineral Leasing Act (30

U.S.C. 192) and the Outer Continental

Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1353), is

responsible for the management of

royalties on minerals produced from

leased Federal lands. MMS carries out

these responsibilities for the Secretary.

Most royalties are now paid in value—

when a company or individual enters

into a contract to develop, produce, and

dispose of minerals from Federal lands,

that company or individual agrees to

pay the United States a share (royalty)

of the full value received for the

minerals taken from leased lands. MMS

has undertaken several pilot programs

to study the feasibility of taking the

Government’s royalty in the form of

production, that is, as RIK. The

collections of information addressed in

this information collection request (ICR)

are necessary because the Secretary of

the Interior must hold competition

when selling to the public; protect

actual RIK production before, during,

and after any sale; and obtain a fair

return on royalty production sold. MMS

must fulfill those obligations for the

Secretary. The reporting requirements

are as follows:

a. The actual bids potential

purchasers will submit when MMS

offers production for competitive sale;

b. Bidders’ statements of financial

qualification;

c. Form MMS–4440, Summary of

Receipt and Delivery Volumes;

d. Report of Gas Analysis (RGA); and

e. Letters of Credit (LOC).

On May 24, 1999, OMB granted

emergency approval for MMS to collect,

from potential purchasers, their

financial statements and their bids on

Federal RIK oil or gas offered for sale by

MMS. On August 4, 1999, MMS

published a 60-day Federal Register

Notice (64 FR 42410) soliciting public

comments on MMS’s request to renew

OMB’s approval to collect those two

items of information. No comments

were received.

As the pilots progressed, MMS

recognized the need to collect three

additional items-Form MMS–4440,

RGA, and LOCs.

MMS will evaluate the bids to

determine which competitive offer to

purchase RIK is most advantageous to

the Government. The financial

statements will be used to evaluate the

risk of a bidder not following through

on all aspects of its offer, including

timely taking of RIK and payment for it.

At the request of some small businesses,

MMS will accept LOCs to help offset

that risk. A small number of purchasers

will pay for RIK production by

delivering like quality and quantities to

a location designated by MMS. They

will report monthly to MMS on Form

MMS–4440, for each pipeline, the

specific daily volumes and qualities

(usually expressed as MMBtu’s) of

MMS’s RIK natural gas volumes that the

respondent has been nominated to

receive/actually has received and

similar information on volumes the

respondent has been nominated to

deliver and actually has delivered to

MMS or its agent. MMS may

occasionally ask for an RGA to verify

the reported quality of such production

at the delivery point.

If a company does not submit a timely

competitive bid, MMS may not sell

Federal RIK to them. Failure of MMS to

evaluate a bidder’s financial

qualifications would increase the risk

that a purchaser might fail to take the

production, fail to reserve pipeline

transportation to move it, fail to pay for

it, or fail to deliver it to a delivery point

designated by MMS. Such failures

would likely incur storage costs,

monetary penalties for failure to meet

delivery due dates, or loss of the

20830 Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 75 / Tuesday, April 18, 2000 / Notices

production. Administrative costs could

be incurred to recover those costs as

well. MMS would be unable to identify

late delivery or under-delivery by

contractors paying for RIK they have

taken by delivering like value

production to an MMS-designated

delivery point if the contractors did not

file Form MMS–4440. Failure to submit

an RGA could impair MMS’s ability to

assure a full return on the sale of

Federal royalty natural gas. If MMS

could not accept LOCs, some small

businesses might be disqualified from

purchasing Federal royalty production.

No proprietary information will be

submitted to MMS under this collection.

No items of a sensitive nature are

collected. Responses are required to

obtain or retain benefits.

The 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.

Estimated Number and Type of

Respondents/Affected Entities:

Approximately 37 companies who will

submit one or multiple bids on Federal

royalty oil or gas; 25 of them will also

submit a financial statement and 5 may

also submit an LOC. Of those who

submit winning bids, a subset six will

also submit Form MMS–4440 and an

RGA.

Frequency of Response: Depending on

the contract terms of MMS’s offer, bids

are accepted monthly, twice annually,

or annually; bidders have the option to

submit one or multiple bids. Form

MMS–4440 is required monthly from a

small subset of successful bidders who

might also be asked to submit an RGA

about once a year. Financial statements

and LOCs are required about once a

year.

Burden Statement and Estimated

Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping

‘‘Hour’’

Burden: We estimate the respondent

burden to average 1 hour for each bid,

financial statement, or LOC. Hard copies

must be submitted for these three items.

We estimate the respondent burden to

average .5 hour per pipeline for Form

MMS–4440 and .5 hour delivery point

for each RGA, both of which may be

submitted electronically. The total hour

burden for these five requirements is

1,324 hours annually, including

recordkeeping. Refer to the following

chart:

BURDEN BREAKDOWN

Reporting/recordkeeping requirements

Estimated

number of

respondents

Annual

frequency

Estimated

number of

responses

Per Yr

Burden per

requirement

in hours

Annual

burden

hours

Bids ................................................................................................... 37 On Occasion ..... 747 1 747

Financial Statements ........................................................................ 25 On Occasion ..... 25 1 25

Summary of Receipt and Delivery Volumes (Form MMS–4440 ...... 06 Monthly ............. 1,080 .5 540

Report of Gas Analysis ..................................................................... 06 On Occasion ..... 10 .5 05

Letters of Credit ................................................................................ 05 On Occasion ..... 07 1 07

Total Reporting .......................................................................... *79 ....................... 1,869 1,324

*NOTE: A respondent is counted each time a different form is submitted. Unsuccessful bidders will submit only 2 forms.

Estimated Annual Reporting and

Recordkeeping ‘‘Non-Hour Cost’’

Burden: This collection of information

will require total capital start-up costs of

$1,500 ($250 x 6 respondents) to adjust

their automated production reporting

systems to provide information to MMS

in Form MMS–4440 format.

Comments: 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.

Send your comments directly to the

offices listed under the ADDRESSES

section of this notice. OMB has up to 60

days to approve or disapprove the

information collection but may respond

after 30 days. Therefore, to ensure

maximum consideration, OMB should

receive public comments by May 18,

2000.

MMS Information Collection

Clearance Officer: Jo Ann Lauterbach

(202) 208–7744.

Dated: April 12, 2000.

R. Dale Fazio,

Acting Associate Director for Royalty

Management.

[FR Doc. 00–9690 Filed 4–17–00; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310–MR–P

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

Boundary Revision; Rocky Mountain

National Park

AGENCY: National Park Service,

Department of the Interior.

ACTION: Notice of boundary revision,

Rocky Mountain National Park.

SUMMARY: This notice announces a

revision of the boundary of Rocky

Mountain National Park to include two

parcels donated by Rocky Mountain

National Park Associates, Inc. The

National Park Service has determined

that this boundary revision is necessary

for the proper preservation and

protection of the National Park.

DATES: The effective date of this Order

is the April 18, 2000.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Superintendent, Rocky Mountain

National Park, at the above address or

by telephone at 970–586–1399.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 16 U.S.C.

4601–9(c)(1) authorizes the Secretary of

the Interior to make this boundary

revision. This boundary adjustment will

add two parcels of land comprised of

28.33 acres and 18.19 acres to Rocky

Mountain National Park in Larimer

County, Colorado.

The above parcels are depicted as

tract numbers 06–142 and 07–152 on

land acquisition map, segments 6 and 7,

having drawing number 121/92,002,

sheet 7 and 8 of 11. The map is on file

at the National Park Service,

Intermountain Land Resources Program