Oil and Gas Leasing; Onshore Oil and Gas Operations

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

43 CFR Parts 3100, 3106, 3130 and 3160

[AA-610-08-4111-2410]

RIN 1004-AC54

Oil and Gas Leasing; Onshore Oil and Gas Operations

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Proposed rule; notice of extension of public comment period.

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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) hereby gives notice that

it is extending the public comment period on a Notice of Proposed Rule,

[[Page 9172]]

which was published in the Federal Register on January 13, 1998 (63 FR

1936). The comment period for the proposed rule expires on March 16,

1998. The proposed rule would clarify the responsibilities of oil and

gas lessees for protecting Federal oil and gas resources from drainage

by operations on nearby lands that would result in lower royalties to

the Federal government. It would specify when the obligations of the

lessee or operating rights owner to protect against drainage begin and

end and specify what steps should be taken to determine if drainage is

occurring. It also would clarify the obligation of the assignor and

assignee for drainage obligations, well abandonment and environmental

remediation when BLM approves an assignment of record title or

operating rights. In response to requests from the public, BLM extends

the comment period to May 15, 1998.

DATES: Submit comments by May 15, 1998.

ADDRESSES: You may submit your comments by any one of several methods.

You may mail comments to the Bureau of Land Management, Administrative

Record, 1849 C Street, N.W., Room 401LS, Washington, D.C. 20240. You

may also comment via the Internet to [email protected]. Please

submit comments as an ASCII file avoiding the use of special characters

and any form of encryption. Please also include ``Attn: AC54'' and your

name and return address in your Internet message. If you do not receive

a confirmation from the system that we have received your Internet

message, contact us directly at (202) 452-5030.

Finally, you may hand-deliver comments to Bureau of Land Management

at 1620 L Street, N.W., Room 401, Washington, D.C. Comments, including

names and street addresses of respondents, will be available for public

review at this address during regular business hours (7:45 a.m. to 4:15

p.m.), Monday through Friday, except holidays. Individual respondents

may request confidentiality, which BLM will consider on a case-by-case

basis. If you wish to request that BLM consider withholding your name

or street address from public review or from disclosure under the

Freedom of Information Act, you must state this prominently at the

beginning of your comment. Such requests will be honored to the extent

allowed by law. All submissions from organizations or businesses, and

from individuals identifying themselves as representatives or officials

of organizations or businesses, will be made available for public

inspection in their entirety.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Donnie Shaw of BLM's Fluid Minerals

Group at (202) 452-0382.

Dated: February 18, 1998.

Frank Bruno,

Acting Group Manager, Regulatory Affairs Group.

[FR Doc. 98-4610 Filed 2-23-98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310-84-P