§ 216.50 - Monthly report of operations.

(a) You must submit a Monthly Report of Operations, Form MMS-3160, if you operate either an onshore Federal or Indian lease or an onshore federally-approved agreement that contains one or more wells that are not permanently plugged and abandoned. You may submit Form MMS-3160 electronically.

(b) You must submit a Form MMS-3160 for each well for each calendar month, beginning with the month in which you complete drilling, unless you have only test production from a drilling well or MMS tells you in writing to do otherwise.

(c) MMS must receive your completed Form MMS-3160 according to the following table:

If you submit your form . . .We must receive it by . . .(1) ElectronicallyThe 25th day of the second month following the month for which you are reporting.(2) Other than electronicallyThe 15th day of the second month following the month for which you are reporting.

(d) You must continue reporting until either:

(1) BLM approves all wells as permanently plugged or abandoned and you dispose of all inventory; or

(2) The lease or agreement is terminated.

(e) You are not required to submit Form MMS-3160 if:

(1) You are authorized to submit an Oil and Gas Operations Report, Form MMS-4054, instead of a Form MMS-3160; or

(2) You operate a gas storage agreement. You must report gas storage agreements to the appropriate BLM office.

(f) Specific and detailed guidance on how to prepare and submit the required production data on the Form MMS-3160 are contained in the MMS PAAS Onshore Oil and Gas Reporter Handbook.See § 216.15 of this part.

(g)(1) Operators already reporting onshore lease production data to MMS in accordance with § 216.53 of this part on the effective date of this rule may request to change to the provisions of this section. Any request to change to the requirements of this section must be made by advance written notice to MMS and have MMS approval.

(2) An operator who reports production data to MMS for offshore leases in accordance with § 216.53 of this part may request to report for its onshore leases in accordance with the requirements of that section. Any such request must be made by advance written notice to MMS and have MMS approval.

(h)(1) Except where disclosure is required by law, information submitted on Form MMS-3160 that MMS classifies as confidential will be protected as such by both MMS and BLM for the period of 1 year. Operators must petition MMS for each lease or agreement to obtain a confidential classification and to extend the classification period beyond 1 year.

(2) Except as provided by statute, information submitted on Form MMS-3160 in regard to Federal leases and Indian leases which are part of a unit containing non-Indian leases is not considered to be confidential.

(3) Except where disclosure is required by law, all information submitted on Form MMS-3160 in regard to Indian leases, other than those included in paragraph (d)(2) of this section, will be considered to be confidential.

(4) Except as provided in this subsection, all other information will be released.