03-4398. 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 1010-0113).

SUMMARY:

To comply with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995, 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 206, Subpart B, Indian Oil. This notice also provides the public a second opportunity to comment on the paperwork burden of these regulatory requirements. The ICR is titled: “30 CFR Part 206, Subpart B, Indian Oil (Form MMS-4416, Indian Crude Oil Valuation Report).”

DATES:

Submit written comments on or before March 27, 2003.

ADDRESSES:

Submit written 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 we have received your email, contact Ms. Gebhardt at [phone].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Sharron L. Gebhardt, telephone [phone], FAX [phone] or email [e-mail]. You may also contact Sharron Gebhardt to obtain a copy at no cost of the regulations that require the subject collection of information.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Title: 30 CFR part 206, subpart B, Indian Oil (Form MMS-4416, Indian Crude Oil Valuation Report).

OMB Control Number: 1010-0113.

Bureau Form Number: Form MMS-4416.

Abstract: The Department of the Interior (DOI) 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 (Secretary) 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. MMS performs the royalty management functions and assists the Secretary in carrying out DOI's Indian trust responsibility.

Section 101(a) of the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act of 1982 (FOGRMA), as amended, requires the Secretary to “establish a comprehensive inspection, collection, and fiscal and production accounting and auditing system to provide the capability to accurately determine oil and gas royalties, interest, fines, penalties, fees, deposits, and other payments owed, and collect and account for such amounts in a timely manner.” To accomplish these tasks more effectively, MMS published a proposed rule in the Federal Register on February 12, 1998 (63 FR 7089) and a supplementary proposed rule on January 5, 2000 (65 FR 403). The proposed rules add more certainty to the valuation of oil produced from Indian lands and eliminate any direct reliance on posted prices by, among other provisions, requiring Indian lessees and purchasers to submit certain contract information to MMS.

MMS has announced in the Federal Register on February 12, 2003 (68 FR 7086), the dates, places, and times for workshops on issues related to the existing rules adopted in March 2000 governing the valuation for royalty purposes of crude oil produced from Federal leases. The workshops will address, among other things, issues related to calculation of transportation allowances (including the rate of return allowed for calculating actual costs under non-arm's-length transportation arrangements), timing and application of published index prices, and calculation of location and quality differentials under certain circumstances.

Because of the substantive overlap between these issues and issues involved in the proposed rule on Indian oil valuation, and to give persons interested in Indian lease issues an opportunity to participate in the workshops, MMS is reopening the comment period for 60 days on the proposed rule on Indian oil valuation so it can include in the record any relevant comments received. MMS can then consider those comments as they might apply to the Indian oil valuation rule.

Not collecting this information would limit the Secretary's ability to discharge his/her duties and may also result in loss of royalty payments to the Indian lessor due to royalties not being collected on prices received under higher priced long-term sales contracts. Proprietary information submitted is protected, and there are no questions of a sensitive nature included in this ICR.

We have also changed the title of this ICR from “Indian Crude Oil Valuation Report (Form MMS-4416)” to “30 CFR part 206, subpart B, Indian Oil (Form MMS-4416, Indian Crude Oil Valuation Report)” to clarify the regulatory language we are covering under 30 CFR part 206.

Frequency: Annually; as Agreements/Contracts Change.

Estimated Number and Description of Respondents: 337 (225 oil royalty payors/112 nonpayor—purchasers).

Estimated Annual Reporting and Recordkeeping “Hour” Burden: 2,363 hours.

The following chart details the individual components and estimated hour burdens. In calculating the burdens, we assumed that respondents perform certain requirements in the normal course of their activities. Therefore, we consider these to be usual and customary and took that into account in estimating the burden.

Proposed 30 CFR section	Reporting requirement	Burden hours per response	Annual number of responses	Annual burden hours
§ 206.81	You must submit information on Form MMS-4416 related to all of your crude oil production from Indian leases. You must initially submit Form MMS-4416 no later than [insert the date 2 months after the effective date of this rule] and then by October 31 [insert the year this regulation takes effect], and by October 31 of each succeeding year	.1667	2,025 1	338
	In addition to the annual requirement to file this form, you must file a new form each time you execute a new exchange or sales contract involving the production of oil from an Indian lease. However, if the contract merely extends the time period a contract is in effect without changing any other terms of the contract, this requirement to file does not apply	.5	4,050 2	2,025
Total			6,075	2,363
1 1,350 payor-purchaser agreements or contracts plus 675 non-payor-purchaser agreements or contracts.
2 225 payor-purchasers x 6 agreements or contracts per payor x 1/2 hour per submission x 2 submissions per year plus 675 agreements or contracts submitted by non-payor-purchasers x 1/2 hour per submission x 2 submissions per year.

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

Public Disclosure Statement: The PRA (44 U.S.C. 3501, et seq.) provides 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.

Comments: 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.

To comply with the public consultation process, we published a Federal Register Notice on October 9, 2002 (67 FR 62985), announcing that we would submit this ICR to OMB for approval. The notice provided the required 60-day comment period. We received no comments in response to the notice.

If you wish to comment in response to this notice, you may send your comments 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 March 27, 2003.

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/​FRNotices/​FRInfColl.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 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: February 14, 2003.

Lucy Querques Denett,

Associate Director for Minerals Revenue Management.