02-28861. Agency Information Collection Activities: Submitted for Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Review; Comment Request

AGENCY:

Minerals Management Service (MMS), Interior.

ACTION:

Notice of an extension of a currently approved information collection (OMB Control Number 1010-0119).

SUMMARY:

To comply with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), we are notifying the public that we have submitted to OMB an information collection request (ICR) to renew approval of the paperwork requirements in the regulations under 30 CFR part 208, subpart A, General Provisions. This notice also provides the public a second opportunity to comment on the paperwork burden of these regulatory requirements. The ICR is titled “Royalty Oil Sales to Eligible Refiners (30 CFR 208.4(a) and (d)).”

DATES:

Submit written comments on or before December 16, 2002.

ADDRESSES:

Submit written comments directly to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, OMB, Attention: Desk Officer for the Department of the Interior (OMB Control Number 1010-0119), 725 17th Street, NW., Washington, DC 20503. Mail or hand-carry a copy of your comments to Sharron L. Gebhardt, Regulatory Specialist, Minerals Management Service, Minerals Revenue Management, PO Box 25165, MS 320B2, Denver, Colorado 80225. If you use an overnight courier service, our courier address is Building 85, Room A-614, Denver Federal Center, Denver, Colorado 80225. You may also email your comments to us at [e-mail]. Include the title of the information collection and the OMB Control Number in the “Attention” line of your comment. Also include your name and return address. Submit electronic comments as an ASCII file avoiding the use of special characters and any form of encryption. If you do not receive a confirmation that we have received your email, contact Ms. Gebhardt at [phone].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Sharron L. Gebhardt, telephone [phone], FAX [phone], email [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Title: Royalty Oil Sale to Eligible Refiners (30 CFR 208.4(a) and (d)).

OMB Control Number: 1010-0119.

Bureau Form Number: None.

Abstract: The Department of the Interior is responsible for matters relevant to mineral resource development on Federal and Indian lands and the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The Secretary of the Interior is responsible for managing the production of minerals from Federal and Indian lands and the OCS, collecting royalties from lessees who produce minerals, and distributing the funds collected in accordance with applicable laws. The Secretary has an Indian trust responsibility to manage Indian lands and seek advice and information from Indian beneficiaries. The MMS performs the royalty management functions and assists the Secretary in carrying out DOI's Indian trust responsibility.

The MMS, on behalf of the Secretary, also performs Determinations of Need prior to issuing a notice of availability of sale in the Federal Register advising industry of a forthcoming RIK sale. The first step in this process is to issue a Federal Register notice requesting specific information from eligible refiners, such as: The location of their refinery; desirability of offshore versus onshore crude; type of crude desired (e.g., Wyoming Sweet); ability to obtain long-term supply of desired crude (with supporting documentation such as “denial” by major supplier); ability to obtain desired crude at fair market prices (with supporting documentation that desired oil was not available or equitably priced for the area or region in question); percentage of total refining capacity attributable to Federal oil versus other sources; etc. The MMS uses feedback from refiners (or other interested parties, like lease owners or operators) to assess current marketplace conditions—i.e., whether small, independent refiners have access to ongoing supplies of crude oil at equitable prices. If MMS determines that small refiners do not have adequate access to crude oil supplies, we will take the Government's royalty oil in kind and offer the oil for sale to small refiners.

The MMS is requesting OMB's approval to continue to collect this information. Without feedback from interested refiners regarding their recent marketplace experience in obtaining adequate crude oil supplies and whether those supplies are fairly priced, MMS cannot perform a reasonable or meaningful Determination of Need. Proprietary information that is submitted is protected, and there are no questions of a sensitive nature included in this information collection. We changed the title of this ICR from “Royalty-in-Kind (RIK) Determination of Need” to the title listed above to clarify the regulatory language we are covering in this ICR under 30 CFR part 208.

Frequency: On occasion.

Estimated Number and Description of Respondents: 25 small refiners.

Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping “Hour” Burden: 100 hours. The table below shows the breakdown of burden hours by CFR section and paragraph:

30 CFR section	Reporting requirement	Burden hours per response	Annual number of responses	Annual burden hours
208.4(a) and (d)	The Secretary may evaluate crude oil market conditions from time to time. * * * The Secretary will review these items (submitted by small refiners) and will determine whether eligible refiners have access to adequate supplies of crude oil * * * Interim sales. The potentially eligible refiners, individually or collectively, must submit documentation demonstrating that adequate supplies of crude oil at equitable prices are not available for purchase * * *	4	25	100

Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping “Non-hour Cost” Burden: We have identified no “non-hour” cost burdens.

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. Before submitting an ICR to OMB, PRA section 3506(c)(2)(A) 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 record keepers resulting from the collection of information. We have not identified non-hour cost burdens for this information collection. If you have costs to generate, maintain, and disclose this information, you should comment and provide your total capital and startup cost components or annual operation, maintenance, and purchase of service components. 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, sampling, testing equipment; 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 ICR submission for OMB approval, including appropriate adjustments to the estimated burden. We will provide a copy of the ICR to you without charge upon request and the ICR will also be posted on our Web site at http://www.mrm.mms.gov/​Laws_​R_​D/​FRNotices/​FRInfColl.htm.

Public Comment Policy. We will post all comments in response to this notice on our web site at http://www.mrm.mms.gov/​Laws_​R_​D/​InfoColl/​InfoColCom.htm. We will also make copies of the comments available for public review, including names and addresses of respondents, during regular business hours at our offices in Lakewood, Colorado. Individual respondents may request that we withhold their home address from the public record, which we will honor to the extent allowable by law. There also may be circumstances in which we would withhold from the rulemaking record a respondent's identity, as allowable by law. If you request that we withhold your name and/or address, 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.

MMS Information Collection Clearance Officer: Jo Ann Lauterbach, [phone].

Dated: October 15, 2002.

Lucy Querques Denett,

Associate Director for Minerals Revenue Management.