Oil and gas leasing : Interior could do more to encourage diligent development : report to congressional requesters.

Format:

Book

Government document

Author/Creator:

United States. Government Accountability Office

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States. Department of the Interior--Rules and practice.

United States.

United States. Department of the Interior.

Oil and gas leases--Government policy--United States.

Oil and gas leases.

Energy development--United States.

Energy development.

Public lands--United States.

Public lands.

Oil and gas leases--Government policy.

Genre:

Rules and practice.

Rules.

Physical Description:

ii, 38 pages : digital, PDF file

Other Title:

Interior could do more to encourage diligent development

Place of Publication:

[Washington, D.C.] : U.S. Govt. Accountability Office, [2008]

Summary:

In 2007, the Department of the Interior (Interior) collected about 1 0.5 billion dollars in revenues from companies that hold federal oil and gas leases. Interior's Minerals Management Service manages offshore leases, while its Bureau of Land Management manages onshore leases and leases in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. Acquiring a federal lease gives the lessee the rights to explore for and develop the oil and gas resources under the lease. Development entails many tasks, including drilling wells and building pipelines that may lead to oil and gas production. GAO agreed to (1) describe Interior's efforts to encourage development of federal oil and gas leases and compare them to states' and private landowners' efforts, (2) examine trends in leasing and factors that may affect development, and (3) describe development on a sample of leases. GAO reviewed data on about 55,000 leases and spoke to officials at Interior and in eight states with leasing experience, among others. GAO recommends that the Secretary of the Interior develop a strategy to evaluate options to encourage faster development of its oil and gas leases. Interior generally agreed with the recommendation, but questioned whether some actions could have potentially adverse impacts. GAO maintains that Interior should study these options and report on the results to Congress.

Notes:

Title from title screen (viewed Apr. 16, 2009).

"October 2008."

Includes bibliographical references.

"GAO-09-74."

OCLC:

269016064