[Code of Federal Regulations] [Title 30, Volume 2] [Revised as of July 1, 2002] From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access [CITE: 30CFR203.71] [Page 24-26] TITLE 30--MINERAL RESOURCES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR PART 203--RELIEF OR REDUCTION IN ROYALTY RATES--Table of Contents Subpart B--OCS Oil, Gas, and Sulfur General Sec. 203.71 How does MMS allocate a field's suspension volume between my lease and other leases on my field? The allocation depends on when production occurs, when we issued the lease, when we assigned it to the field, and whether we award the volume suspension by an approved application or establish it in the lease terms, as prescribed in this section. (a) If your authorized field has an approved royalty suspension volume [[Page 25]] under Secs. 203.67 and 203.69, we will suspend payment of royalties on production from all leases in the field that participate in the application until their cumulative production equals the approved volume. The following conditions also apply: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ If . . . Then . . . And . . . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (1) We assign an eligible lease We will not change The assigned to your field after we approve your field's lease(s) may relief. royalty share in any suspension volume. remaining royalty relief. (2) We assign a pre-Act or post- We will not change The assigned November 2000 deep water lease your field's lease(s) may to your field after we approve royalty share in any your application. suspension volume. remaining royalty relief by filing the short-form application specified in Sec. 203.83 and authorized in Sec. 203.82. An assigned RS lease also gets any portion of its royalty suspension volume remaining even after the field has produced the approved relief volume. (3) We assign another lease(s) We will change (i) You toll the that you operate to your field your field's time period for while we are evaluating your minimum evaluation until application. suspension volume you modify your if the assigned application to be lease is a pre- consistent with Act or eligible the new field; lease entitled to (ii) We have an a larger minimum additional 60 or automatic days to review suspension volume. the new information; and (iii) The assigned lease(s) shares the royalty suspension we grant to the new field. If you do not agree to toll, we will have to reject your application due to incomplete information. But, an eligible lease we assigned to the field kept its automatic suspension volume. (4) We assign another operator's We will change (i) You both toll lease to your field while we your field's the time period are evaluating your application. minimum for evaluation suspension volume until both of you provided the modify your assigned lease application to be joins the consistent with application and the new field; is entitled to a (ii) We have an larger minimum additional 60 suspension volume. days to review the new information; and (iii) The assigned lease(s) shares the royalty suspension we grant to the new field. If you (the original applicant) do not agree to toll, the other operator's lease retains any suspension volume it has or may share in any relief that we grant by filing the short form application specified in Sec. 203.83 and authorized in Sec. 203.82. (5) We reassign a well on a pre- The past The past Act, eligible, or post-November production from production from 2000 deep water lease to the well counts that well will another field. toward the not count toward royalty any royalty suspension volume suspension volume of the field to granted to the which we assigned field from which the well. we reassigned it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (b) If your authorized field has a royalty suspension volume established under Sec. 260.111 of this title (i.e., a field with a pre- Act lease where an eligible lease starts production first), we will suspend payment of royalties on production from all eligible leases in the field until their cumulative production equals the established volume. The following conditions also apply: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ If . . . Then . . . And . . . ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (1) We assign another eligible Your field's The assigned lease lease to your field. royalty may share in any suspension volume remaining royalty does not change. relief. (2) We assign an RS lease to Your field's The assigned lease your field. royalty gets only the suspension volume volume suspension does not change. with which we issued it, and its production volume counts against the field's royalty suspension volume. (3) We assign a pre-Act lease or Your field's We assign lease a lease issued after November royalty shares none of 2000 without royalty suspension suspension volume the volume to your field. does not change. suspension, and its production does not count as part of the suspension volume. [[Page 26]] (4) A pre-Act or post-November Your field's (i) All leases in 2000 deep water lease applies royalty the field share (along with the other leases in suspension volume the royalty the field) and qualifies may increase or suspension volume (subject to any pre-existing stay the same, if we approve the suspension volumes) for royalty but will not application; or relief under Secs. 203.67 and diminish. (ii) The eligible 203.69. or RS leases in the field keep their respective volumes if we reject the application. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (c) When a project has more than one lease, the royalty suspension volume for each lease equals that lease's actual production from the project (or production allocated under an approved unit agreement) until total production for all leases in the project equals the project's approved royalty suspension volume. (d) You may receive a royalty-suspension volume only if your entire lease is west of 87 degrees, 30 minutes West longitude. If the field lies on both sides of this meridian, only leases located entirely west of the meridian will receive a royalty-suspension volume. [63 FR 2618, Jan. 16, 1998, as amended at 67 FR 1877, Jan. 15, 2002]