§ 206.111 - How do I determine a transportation allowance if I do not have an arm's-length transportation contract or arm's-length tariff?

(a) This section applies if you or your affiliate do not have an arm's-length transportation contract, including situations where you or your affiliate provide your own transportation services. Calculate your transportation allowance based on your or your affiliate's reasonable, actual costs for transportation during the reporting period using the procedures prescribed in this section.

(b) Your or your affiliate's actual costs include the following:

(1) Operating and maintenance expenses under paragraphs (d) and (e) of this section;

(2) Overhead under paragraph (f) of this section;

(3) Depreciation under paragraphs (g) and (h) of this section;

(4) A return on undepreciated capital investment under paragraph (i) of this section; and

(5) Once the transportation system has been depreciated below ten percent of total capital investment, a return on ten percent of total capital investment under paragraph (j) of this section.

(6) To the extent not included in costs identified in paragraphs (d) through (j) of this section, you may also deduct the following actual costs. You may not use any cost as a deduction that duplicates all or part of any other cost that you use under this section:

(i) Volumetric adjustments for actual (not theoretical) line losses.

(ii) The cost of carrying on your books as inventory a volume of oil that the pipeline operator requires you as a shipper to maintain, and that you do maintain, in the line as line fill. You must calculate this cost as follows:

(A) Multiply the volume that the pipeline requires you to maintain, and that you do maintain, in the pipeline by the value of that volume for the current month calculated under § 206.102 or § 206.103, as applicable; and

(B) Multiply the value calculated under paragraph (b)(6)(ii)(A) of this section by the monthly rate of return, calculated by dividing the rate of return specified in § 206.111(i)(2) by 12.

(iii) Fees paid to a non-affiliated terminal operator for loading and unloading of crude oil into or from a vessel, vehicle, pipeline, or other conveyance.

(iv) Transfer fees paid to a hub operator associated with physical movement of crude oil through the hub when you do not sell the oil at the hub. These fees do not include title transfer fees.

(v) A volumetric deduction to cover shrinkage when high-gravity petroleum (generally in excess of 51 degrees API) is mixed with lower-gravity crude oil for transportation.

(vi) Fees paid to a non-affiliated quality bank administrator for administration of a quality bank.

(7) You may not deduct any costs that are not actual costs of transporting oil, including but not limited to the following:

(i) Fees paid for long-term storage (more than 30 days).

(ii) Administrative, handling, and accounting fees associated with terminalling.

(iii) Title and terminal transfer fees.

(iv) Fees paid to track and match receipts and deliveries at a market center or to avoid paying title transfer fees.

(v) Fees paid to brokers.

(vi) Fees paid to a scheduling service provider.

(vii) Internal costs, including salaries and related costs, rent/space costs, office equipment costs, legal fees, and other costs to schedule, nominate, and account for sale or movement of production.

(viii) Theoretical line losses.

(ix) Gauging fees.

(c) Allowable capital costs are generally those for depreciable fixed assets (including costs of delivery and installation of capital equipment) which are an integral part of the transportation system.

(d) Allowable operating expenses include:

(i) Operations supervision and engineering;

(ii) Operations labor;

(iii) Fuel;

(iv) Utilities;

(v) Materials;

(vi) Ad valorem property taxes;

(vii) Rent;

(viii) Supplies; and

(ix) Any other directly allocable and attributable operating expense which you can document.

(e) Allowable maintenance expenses include:

(i) Maintenance of the transportation system;

(ii) Maintenance of equipment;

(iii) Maintenance labor; and

(iv) Other directly allocable and attributable maintenance expenses which you can document.

(f) Overhead directly attributable and allocable to the operation and maintenance of the transportation system is an allowable expense. State and Federal income taxes and severance taxes and other fees, including royalties, are not allowable expenses.

(g) To compute depreciation, you may elect to use either a straight-line depreciation method based on the life of equipment or on the life of the reserves which the transportation system services, or a unit-of-production method. After you make an election, you may not change methods without MMS approval. You may not depreciate equipment below a reasonable salvage value.

(h) This paragraph describes the basis for your depreciation schedule.

(1) If you or your affiliate own a transportation system on June 1, 2000, you must base your depreciation schedule used in calculating actual transportation costs for production after June 1, 2000, on your total capital investment in the system (including your original purchase price or construction cost and subsequent reinvestment).

(2) If you or your affiliate purchased the transportation system at arm's length before June 1, 2000, you must incorporate depreciation on the schedule based on your purchase price (and subsequent reinvestment) into your transportation allowance calculations for production after June 1, 2000, beginning at the point on the depreciation schedule corresponding to that date. You must prorate your depreciation for calendar year 2000 by claiming part-year depreciation for the period from June 1, 2000 until December 31, 2000. You may not adjust your transportation costs for production before June 1, 2000, using the depreciation schedule based on your purchase price.

(3) If you are the original owner of the transportation system on June 1, 2000, or if you purchased your transportation system before March 1, 1988, you must continue to use your existing depreciation schedule in calculating actual transportation costs for production in periods after June 1, 2000.

(4) If you or your affiliate purchase a transportation system at arm's length from the original owner after June 1, 2000, you must base your depreciation schedule used in calculating actual transportation costs on your total capital investment in the system (including your original purchase price and subsequent reinvestment). You must prorate your depreciation for the year in which you or your affiliate purchased the system to reflect the portion of that year for which you or your affiliate own the system.

(5) If you or your affiliate purchase a transportation system at arm's length after June 1, 2000, from anyone other than the original owner, you must assume the depreciation schedule of the person from whom you bought the system. Include in the depreciation schedule any subsequent reinvestment.

(i)(1) To calculate a return on undepreciated capital investment, multiply the remaining undepreciated capital balance as of the beginning of the period for which you are calculating the transportation allowance by the rate of return provided in paragraph (i)(2) of this section.

(2) The rate of return is 1.3 times the industrial bond yield index for Standard & Poor's BBB bond rating. Use the monthly average rate published in “Standard & Poor's Bond Guide” for the first month of the reporting period for which the allowance applies. Calculate the rate at the beginning of each subsequent transportation allowance reporting period.

(j)(1) After a transportation system has been depreciated at or below a value equal to ten percent of your total capital investment, you may continue to include in the allowance calculation a cost equal to ten percent of your total capital investment in the transportation system multiplied by a rate of return under paragraph (i)(2) of this section.

(2) You may apply this paragraph to a transportation system that before June 1, 2000, was depreciated at or below a value equal to ten percent of your total capital investment.

(k) Calculate the deduction for transportation costs based on your or your affiliate's cost of transporting each product through each individual transportation system. Where more than one liquid product is transported, allocate costs consistently and equitably to each of the liquid products transported. Your allocation must use the same proportion as the ratio of the volume of each liquid product (excluding waste products with no value) to the volume of all liquid products (excluding waste products with no value).

(1) You may not take an allowance for transporting lease production that is not royalty-bearing.

(2) You may propose to MMS a cost allocation method on the basis of the values of the products transported. MMS will approve the method if it is consistent with the purposes of the regulations in this subpart.

(l)(1) Where you transport both gaseous and liquid products through the same transportation system, you must propose a cost allocation procedure to MMS.

(2) You may use your proposed procedure to calculate a transportation allowance until MMS accepts or rejects your cost allocation. If MMS rejects your cost allocation, you must amend your Form MMS-2014 for the months that you used the rejected method and pay any additional royalty and interest due.

(3) You must submit your initial proposal, including all available data, within 3 months after first claiming the allocated deductions on Form MMS-2014.