U.S. Department of the Interior
Minerals Management Service
Office of Communications

NEWS RELEASE

MMS Extends Comment Period for Marginal Oil and Gas Properties Rules

    The Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) is extending the comment period until April 22, 1999, for proposed regulations regarding marginal oil and gas properties on Federal public lands.

    The proposed regulations were published in the Federal Register on January 21, 1999, (64 FR 3360) with the comment period originally set to close on March 22. This 30-day extension will allow states and other interested parties additional time to submit comments.

    Marginal properties are generally leases that produce less than 15 barrels of oil equivalents per well, per day or 90 thousand cubic feet of gas per well, per day, or a combination thereof. The rules are designed to promote production, reduce administrative costs, and increase net receipts. The proposed regulations explain how leaseholders may obtain royalty accounting and auditing relief for these properties.

    Copies of the proposed regulations are available on the MMS website at www.rmp.mms.gov/library/leglroom/proprule/ProRules.htm. For additional information or to submit written comments for consideration in the final rule's determination, contact David Guzy, MMS, Royalty Management Program, Rules and Publications, P.O. Box 25165, MS 3021, Denver, CO 80225-0165. He may also be reached by phone at (303)231-3432. Comments may also be emailed to RMP.comments@mms.gov.

    MMS is the federal agency that manages the Nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the Outer Continental Shelf; and collects, accounts for, and last year disbursed about $6 billion in revenues from federal offshore mineral leases and from onshore mineral leases on federal and Indian lands.

-MMS-

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