Minerals Management Service June 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Notice is given that the MMS will issue five limited leases authorizing wind resource data collection on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) offshore New Jersey and Delaware. Five OCS blocks will be leased for a term of 5 years; and the annual rent will be $3.00 per acre as established in the interim policy published in the Federal Register (72 FR 214, pp. 62673-62675) on November 6, 2007. The OCS blocks will be leased subject to the terms set forth in the lease form published in the Federal Register (73 FR 77, pp. 21363-21375) on April 21, 2008, and also subject to stipulations. The MMS will issue leases for four OCS blocks off the coast of New Jersey and one off the coast of Delaware to four companies: Bluewater Wind Delaware, LLC; Bluewater Wind New Jersey Energy LLC; Fishermen's Energy of New Jersey, LLC, and Deepwater Wind, LLC. The OCS blocks off the coast of New Jersey are Wilmington NJ 18-02 Block 6936 to Bluewater Wind New Jersey Energy, LLC; Wilmington NJ 18-02 Block 6931 to Fishermen's Energy of New Jersey, LLC; Wilmington NJ 18-02 Block 6738 and Wilmington NJ 18-02 Block 7033 to Deepwater Wind, LLC. The OCS block MMS will lease off the coast of Delaware is Salisbury NJ 18-05 Block 6325 to Bluewater Wind Delaware, LLC.

The MMS proposes to require operators to develop and implement

To comply with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), MMS is inviting comments on a collection of information that we will submit to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and approval. This information collection request concerns the paperwork requirements in the regulations under 30 CFR 250, Subpart A, ``General.'' The MMS is renewing OMB approved Emergency Request 1010-0177 because information needs to be collected for a longer period than allowed in the Emergency Request. After a major weather event, like a hurricane, lessees and operators need to keep reporting new information to MMS until all MODUs are determined to be safe.

This notice provides the official MMS determination of which Gulf of Mexico price thresholds have been exceeded by annual market prices for oil or gas, by lease vintage, for calendar year 2008. This notice also explains in detail how MMS calculates the annual oil and gas prices and applicable price thresholds used to determine whether royalty relief applies in calendar year 2008 for our various deepwater and deep depth royalty relief programs.