30 C.F.R. Subpart J—Assignments, Transfers, and Extensions
Title 30 - Mineral Resources
This section explains how to assign record title and other interests in OCS oil and gas or sulphur leases. (a) MMS may approve the assignment to you of the ownership of the record title to a lease or any undivided interest in a lease, or an officially designated subdivision of a lease, only if: (1) You qualify to hold a lease under §256.35(b); (2) You provide the bond coverage required under subpart I of this part; and (3) The Regional Director approves the assignment. (b) An assignment shall be void if it is made pursuant to any prelease agreement described in §256.44(c) of this part that would cause a bid to be disqualified. (c) Any approved assignment shall be deemed to be effective on the first day of the lease month following its filing in the appropriate office of the MMS, unless at the request of the parties, an earlier date is specified in the approval. (d) You, as assignor, are liable for all obligations that accrue under your lease before the date that the Regional Director approves your request for assignment of the record title in the lease. The Regional Director's approval of the assignment does not relieve you of accrued lease obligations that your assignee, or a subsequent assignee, fails to perform. (e) Your assignee and each subsequent assignee are liable for all obligations that accrue under the lease after the date that the Regional Director approves the governing assignment. They must: (1) Comply with all the terms and conditions of the lease and all regulations issued under the Act; and (2) Remedy all existing environmental problems on the tract, properly abandon all wells, and reclaim the lease site in accordance with part 250, subpart Q. (f) If your assignee, or a subsequent assignee, fails to perform any obligation under the lease or the regulations in this chapter, the Regional Director may require you to bring the lease into compliance to the extent that the obligation accrued before the Regional Director approved the assignment of your interest in the lease. [44 FR 38276, June 29, 1979. Redesignated at 47 FR 47006, Oct. 22, 1982, and amended at 58 FR 45262, Aug. 27, 1993; 62 FR 27959, May 22, 1997; 67 FR 35412, May 17, 2002] (a) The table in this paragraph (a) shows the fees that you must pay to MMS for the services listed. The fees will be adjusted periodically according to the Implicit Price Deflator for Gross Domestic Product by publication of a document in the (b) Once a fee is paid, it is nonrefundable, even if an application or other request is withdrawn. If your application is returned to you as incomplete, you are not required to submit a new fee with the amended application. [70 FR 49876, Aug. 25, 2005] This section explains how to file instruments with MMS that create and/or transfer interests in OCS oil and gas or sulphur leases. (a) You must submit to the Regional Director for approval all instruments that create or transfer ownership of a lease interest. (1) You must submit two copies of the instruments that create or transfer an interest. Each instrument that creates or transfers an interest must describe by officially designated subdivision the interest you propose to create or transfer. (2) You must submit your proposal to create or transfer an interest, or create or transfer separate operating rights, subleases, and record title interests within 90 days of the last date that a party executes the transfer agreement. (3) The transferee must meet the citizenship and other qualification criteria specified in §256.35 of this part. When you submit an instrument to create or transfer an interest as an association, you must include a statement signed by the transferee about the transferee's citizenship and qualifications to own a lease. (4) Your instrument to create or transfer an interest must contain all of the terms and conditions to which you and the other parties agree. (5) You do not gain a release of any nonmonetary obligation under your lease or the regulations in this chapter by creating a sublease or transferring operating rights. (6) You do not gain a release from any accrued obligation under your lease or the regulations in this chapter by assigning your record title interest in the lease. (7) You may create or transfer carried working interests, overriding royalty interests, or payments out of production without obtaining the Regional Director's approval. However, you must file instruments creating or transferring carried working interests, overriding royalty interests, or payments out of production with the Regional Director for record purposes. (8) You must pay the service fee listed in §256.63 of this subpart with your application for approval of any instrument of transfer you are required to file (Record Title/Operating Rights (Transfer) Fee). Where multiple transfers of interest are included in a single instrument, a separate fee applies to each individual transfer of interest. For any document you are not required to file by these regulations but which you submit for record purposes per lease affected, you must also pay the service fee listed in §256.63 (Non-required Document Filing Fee). Such documents may be rejected at the discretion of the authorized officer. (9) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph (a)(8) of this section, the requirements to pay a filing fee in connection with any application for approval of any instrument of transfer and to pay a fee in connection with documents not required to be filed are suspended until January 3, 2006. (b) An attorney in fact, in behalf of the holder of a lease, operating rights or sublease, shall furnish evidence of authority to execute the assignment or application for approval and the statement required by §256.46 of this part. (c) When you request approval for an assignment that assigns all your record title interest in a lease or that creates a segregated lease, your assignee must furnish a bond in the amount prescribed in §§256.52 and 256.53 of this part. (d) When you request approval for an assignment that assigns less than all the record title of a lease and that does not create a separate lease, the assignee may, with the surety's consent, become a joint principal on the surety instrument that guarantees compliance with all the terms and conditions of the lease. (e) An heir or devisee of a deceased holder of a lease, or any interest therein, shall be recognized as the lawful successor to such lease or interest, if evidence of status as an heir or devisee is furnished in the form of: (1) A certified copy of an appropriate order or decree of the court having jurisdiction of the distribution of the estate or, (2) If no court action is necessary, the statements of two disinterested parties having knowledge of the facts or a certified copy of the will. (f) In addition to the requirements of paragraph (d) of this section, the heirs or devisees shall file statements that they are the persons named as successors to the estate with evidence of their qualifications as provided in §256.46 of this part. (g) In the event an heir or devisee is unable to qualify to hold the lease or interest, the heir or devisee shall be recognized as the lawful successor of the deceased and be entitled to hold the lease for a period of not to exceed 2 years from the date of death of the predecessor in interest. (h) Your heirs, executors, administrators, successors, and assigns are bound to comply with each obligation under any lease and under the regulations in this chapter. (1) You are jointly and severally liable for the performance of each nonmonetary obligation under the lease and under the regulations in this chapter with each prior lessee and with each operating rights owner holding an interest at the time the obligation accrued, unless this chapter provides otherwise. (2) Sublessees and operating rights owners are jointly and severally liable for the performance of each nonmonetary obligation under the lease and under the regulations in this chapter to the extent that: (i) The obligation relates to the area embraced by the sublease; (ii) Those owners held their respective interest at the time the obligation accrued; and (iii) This chapter does not provide otherwise. (i) Where the proposed assignment or transfer is by a person who, at the time of acquisition of an interest in the lease, was on the List of Restricted Joint Bidders, and that assignment or transfer is of less than the entire interest of the assignor or transferor, to a person or persons on the same List of Restricted Joint Bidders, the assignor or transferor shall file a copy, prior to approval of the assignment, of all agreements applicable to the acquisition of that lease or a fractional interest. [44 FR 38276, June 29, 1979. Redesignated at 47 FR 47006, Oct. 22, 1982, as amended at 62 FR 27959, May 22, 1997; 62 FR 39775, July 24, 1997; 70 FR 49877, Aug. 25, 2005; 70 FR 61893, Oct. 27, 2005] Prior to the approval of an assignment or transfer, the Secretary shall consult with and give due consideration to the views of the Attorney General. The Secretary may act on an assignment or transfer if the Attorney General has not responded to the request for consultation within 30 days of said request. A separate instrument of assignment shall be filed for each lease. When transfers to the same person, association or corporation, involving more than one lease are filed at the same time for approval, one request for approval and one showing as to the qualifications of the assignee shall be sufficient. (a) When an assignment is made of all the record title to a portion of the acreage in a lease, the assigned and retained portions become segregated into separate and distinct leases. In such a case, the assignee becomes a lessee of the Government as to the segregated tract that is the subject of assignment, and is bound by the terms of the lease as though the lease had been obtained from the United States in the assignee's own name, and the assignment, after its approval, shall be the basis of a new record. Royalty, minimum royalty and rental provisions of the original lease shall apply separately to each segregated portion. (b) For assignments of a portion of an oil and gas lease approved after the effective date of ths section, each segregated lease shall continue in full force and effect for the primary term of the original lease and so long thereafter as oil or gas is produced from that segregated portion of the leased area in paying quantities or drillng or well reworking operations as approved by the Secretary are conducted. (c) For those assignments approved prior to the effective date of this section, each segregated lease shall continue in full force and effect for the primary term of the original lease and so long thereafter as oil and gas may be produced from the original leased area in paying quantities or drilling or well reworking operations, as approved by the Secretary, are conducted. The term of a lease shall be extended beyond the primary term so long as drilling or well reworking operations are approved by the Secretary according to the conditions set forth in 30 CFR 250.180. [44 FR 38276, June 29, 1979, as amended at 55 FR 32908, Aug. 13, 1990; 64 FR 9066, Feb. 24, 1999; 64 FR 72795, Dec. 28, 1999] In accordance with an approved exploration plan or development and production plan, a lease may be maintained in force by directional wells drilled under the leased area from surface locations on adjacent or adjoining land not covered by the lease. In such circumstances, drilling shall be considered to have commenced on the leased area when drilling is commenced on the adjacent or adjoining land for the purpose of directional drilling under the leased area through any directional well surfaced on adjacent or adjoining land. Production, drillling or reworking of any such directional well shall be considered production or drilling or reworking operations on the leased area for all purposes of the lease. If an oil and gas lessee makes compensatory payments and if the lease is not being maintained in force by other production of oil or gas in paying quantities or by other approved drilling or reworking operations, such payments shall be considered as the equivalent of production in paying quantities for all purposes of the lease. [44 FR 38276, June 29, 1979. Redesignated at 47 FR 47006, Oct. 22, 1982, and amended at 54 FR 50617, Dec. 8, 1989] (a) A suspension may extend the term of a lease (see 30 CFR 250.171) with the extension being the length of time the suspension is in effect except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section. (b) A Directed Suspension does not extend the lease term when the Regional Supervisor directs a suspension because of: (1) Gross negligence; or (2) A willful violation of a provision of the lease or governing regulations. (c) MMS may issue suspensions for a period of up to 5 years per suspension. The Regional Supervisor will set the length of the suspension based on the conditions of the individual case involved. MMS may grant consecutive suspensions. For more information on suspension of operations or production refer to the section under the heading “Suspensions” in 30 CFR part 250, subpart A. [64 FR 72795, Dec. 28, 1999]
Title 30: Mineral Resources
PART 256—LEASING OF SULPHUR OR OIL AND GAS IN THE OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF
Subpart J—Assignments, Transfers, and Extensions
§ 256.62 Assignment of lease or interest in lease.
§ 256.63 Service fees.
Service Fee Table [Effective September 26, 2005]------------------------------------------------------------------------ Service Fee amount 30 CFR citation------------------------------------------------------------------------(1) Record Title/Operating Rights $170 § 256.64 (Transfer)...............................(2) Non-required Document Filing.......... 25 § 256.64------------------------------------------------------------------------
§ 256.64 How to file transfers.
§ 256.65 Attorney General review.
§ 256.67 Separate filings for assignments.
§ 256.68 Effect of assignment of a particular tract.
§ 256.70 Extension of lease by drilling or well reworking operations.
§ 256.71 Directional drilling.
§ 256.72 Compensatory payments as production.
§ 256.73 Effect of suspensions on lease term.
