Notice to Lessees and Operators (NTL) of Federal Oil, Gas,
and Sulphur Leases in the Outer Continental Shelf

Conservation Information

NOTE: NTL 2000-N05 is available for download in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF).

This Notice to Lessees and Operators (NTL) supersedes NTL 98-14N. We are reissuing this NTL to update a regulatory citation and the expiration date of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval of the information collection requirements.

This NTL describes how you should submit conservation information about deepwater or subsea development projects early in the planning phase. We will use this information to ensure development of economically producible reservoirs according to sound conservation, engineering, and economic practices as cited in 30 CFR 250.202(a) and 250.1101(a) before you commit or expend substantial funds. You should submit the necessary information as part of your Supplemental Plans of Exploration (POE) and Initial and Supplemental Development Operations Coordination Documents (DOCD).

If you are contemplating developing a lease or leases located in water depths greater than 1,000 feet, you should provide the conservation information listed below in a separate document with your Supplemental POE or DOCD according to 30 CFR 250.203(b)(21) or 30 CFR 250.204(b)(17). This will assist MMS in determining whether predevelopment or development activities proposed after the initial exploration program meet our mandate to conserve resources. You should also submit the information for development scenarios involving subsea wells, regardless of water depth. Development scenarios that will use conventional steel-piled jacket platforms are exempt from this early conservation review.

Submit three copies of the following proprietary information, to the extent that it is available, to the Regional Supervisor for Field Operations for each penetrated, hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir which would qualify a well as capable of producing in paying quantities under 30 CFR 250.115 or 250.116 (formerly 250.111):

1.  Estimate of original oil and gas in-place and anticipated recoverable reserves;

2.  Reservoir development strategies or a statement that the reservoir is not planned for development;

3.  Project-specific economic justification, including risk assessment, consistent with your internal evaluation if the reservoir is not planned for development;

4.  Structure maps, the penetration point and subsea depth for each well penetrating the reservoir, fluid contacts or the lowest or highest known levels in the absence of actual contacts, reservoir boundaries, and the scale of the map;

5.  Interpreted structural cross sections and corresponding full-scale interpreted seismic lines or block diagrams, as necessary, which include all current wellbores and planned wellbores on the leases to be developed; the reservoir boundaries, gas/oil/water contacts, depth scale, and stratigraphic positions should be included on the cross sections;

6.  Isopach maps of each reservoir showing the net feet of pay for each well within the reservoir identified at the penetration point, along with the well name, labeled contours, and the correct scale of the map;

7.  Appropriate well logs;

8.  Appropriate pressure data, specified by date, and whether estimated or measured; and

9.  Any other appropriate data used in performing your reservoir evaluations and preparing your reservoir development strategies.

Submit only that reservoir and geologic information that has changed; reference all other information that has been submitted in a previous POE or DOCD.

We understand that the formulation of reservoir development plans involves the analysis of numerous complex and uncertain factors. We further understand that different parties may use different assumptions concerning matters such as price forecast, risk tolerance, marginal cost of capital, discount rate, inflation factors, and the like. It is not our intent to require the development of uneconomic reservoirs.

You are encouraged to submit the Supplemental POE or DOCD conservation information as early as practical and/or request an informal meeting(s) or presentation(s) when capital investments could be affected by MMS conservation decisions. When you submit this conservation information separately, prior to the submission of the complete Supplemental POE or DOCD, the Regional Supervisor will provide a timely written response indicating acceptability concerning conservation issues.

The superseded NTL 98-14N indicated that we would be reviewing the NTL and its application. During the process of developing revised 30 CFR 250, subpart B regulations, we examined the continued need for receiving the conservation information addressed in the NTL and determined that indeed it is still necessary. The proposed revised subpart B regulations will specifically incorporate the requirement for submitting Conservation Information Documents.

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 Statement: This Act (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.) requires us to inform you that MMS collects this information to ensure development of economically producible reservoirs according to sound conservation, engineering, and economic practices. Responses are mandatory. Proprietary data are covered under 30 CFR 250, subpart A. We estimate the reporting burden to average 300 hours for submitting this conservation information, including the time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining data, and completing and reviewing the information. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB has approved this collection of information under OMB control number 1010-0049. Direct comments regarding the burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information to the Information Collection Clearance Officer, Mail Stop 4230, Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service, 1849 C Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20240.

Contact: If you have any questions or need additional information on this NTL, you may contact the Reservoir Analysis Unit Supervisor at (504) 736-2834.

This NTL is also on the MMS worldwide website at http://www.mms.gov/ntls/.
 

Date	Carolita Kallaur Associate Director for Offshore Energy and Minerals Management

OMB Control Number: 1010-0049
Expiration Date: September 30, 2003