U.S. Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service Gulf of Mexico OCS Region

The U.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) has issued final regulations and guidelines on the procedures lease operators use to apply for deepwater royalty relief and for end-of-life royalty relief.  This advisory announces a workshop to be held on June 10, 1998, at the MMS office located at 1201 Elmwood Park Boulevard, New Orleans, Louisiana 70123, to help prospective royalty relief applicants understand how to apply and qualify for royalty relief.

The workshop will begin at 8:30 a.m. and end at 4:30 p.m. (Registration will start at 8:00 a.m.)  Discussions by MMS personnel will include illustrating the application requirements, explaining the relief qualification systems, and answering implementation and evaluation questions.  The agenda will include a review of the deepwater relief evaluation process, use of the computer Resource Module of RSVP, use of the Viability Module of RSVP, evaluation issues and process issues with deepwater applications, and structure and qualification for end-of-life relief.

Interested parties are invited to attend, but it would be especially valuable for those responsible for actually preparing royalty relief applications to attend.  Reservations should be made no later than June 5, 1998, with Ms. Mary Carter, by phone (504-736-2675) or facsimile (504-736-2647).

The MMS is the Federal Agency that manages and regulates the Nation's natural gas, oil, and other mineral resources on the OCS, and collects, accounts for, and disburses about $6 billion yearly in revenues from offshore Federal mineral leases and from onshore mineral leases on Federal and Indian lands.