Securities and Exchange Commission November 4, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB) revises or rescinds portions of the interpretive guidance included in the section of the Staff Accounting Bulletin Series titled ``Topic 12: Oil and Gas Producing Activities'' (Topic 12) and revises a technical reference in ``Topic 3: Senior Securities'' (Topic 3). This update is intended to make the relevant interpretive guidance consistent with current authoritative accounting and auditing guidance and Commission rules and regulations. The principal changes involve revision or removal of material due to recent Commission rulemaking. Specifically, the staff is updating the Series in order to bring existing guidance into conformity with the contents of Financial Reporting Release No. 78 (Release No. 33-8995), Modernization of Oil and Gas Reporting, issued December 31, 2008 (FR-78), and, in the case of the technical amendment to SAB Topic 3, Financial Reporting Release No. 79 (Release Nos. 33- 9026; 34-59775), Technical Amendments to Rules, Forms, Schedules and Codification of Financial Reporting Policies (FR-79), issued April 15, 2009. This SAB also updates related interpretive responses and examples in Topic 12. The staff expects registrants to apply the updated guidance in this SAB related to Topic 12 on a prospective basis in conjunction with the application of FR-78 and retroactively for the technical amendment to Topic 3 in conjunction with the effective date of FR-79. FR-78 is effective for registration statements filed on or after January 1, 2010, and for annual reports on Forms 10-K and 20-F for fiscal years ending on or after December 31, 2009. FR-79 is effective as of April 23, 2009.