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RCED-85-161 1 (1985-09-30)

handle is hein.gao/gaobabntt0001 and id is 1 raw text is: COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES WASHINGTON D.C 20548 B-202428 SEPTEMBER 30, 1985 To the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives Subject: Our Seventh Annual Review of Interior's Methodology for Allowing OCS Wells to be Shut in or to Flare Natural Gas (GAO/RCED-85-161) In accordance with the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Lands Act Amendments of 1978, we are providing our seventh annual report to the Congress evaluating the methodology that the Department of the Interior uses in allowing offshore oil and gas wells to be suspended from production (shut in) or to burn off (flare) natural gas. (See enclosure I for a list of our previous reports.) We continue to believe, as indicated in our prior reports, that Interior's methodology is reasonable and that the legislative requirements that Interior annually report on OCS shut-in and flaring wells and that we annually evaluate Inter- ior's methodology should be repealed. Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) has primary responsibility for monitoring OCS lease activities, including shut-in and flaring wells. Our review was conducted primarily at the MMS Gulf of Mexico OCS regional office in Metairie, Louisiana. About 92 percent of the 3,930 producing offshore oil wells and all but 8 of the 3,178 producing offshore gas wells are in the Gulf of Mexico. We examined applicable regulations, policies, procedures, and records, such as lease operator reports on shut-in and flar- ing wells, MMS platform inspection reports, and lease operator flaring requests to and approvals from MMS. In addition, we interviewed MMS regional officials responsible for Interior's oversight of shut-in and flaring wells. We conducted our review from May through July 1985 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. INTERIOR'S METHODOLOGY As in past years, Interior relies primarily on shut-in and flaring well data submitted by well operators, which is verified through routine onsite well inspections by MMS inspectors. (140208) 111 111111111 128070

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