Mineral Revenues: MMS Could Do More to Improve the Accuracy of Key Data Used to Collect and Verify Oil and Gas Royalties

摘要

In fiscal year 2008, the Department of Interiors Minerals Management Service (MMS) collected over $12 billion in royalties from oil and gas production from federal lands and waters. Companies that produce this oil and gas self-report to MMS data on the amount of oil and gas they produced and sold, the value of this production, and the amount of royalties owed. Since 2004, GAO has noted systemic problems with these data and recommended improvements. GAO is providing: (1) a descriptive update on MMSs key efforts to improve the accuracy of oil and gas royalty data; (2) our assessment of the completeness and reasonableness of fiscal years 2006 and 2007 oil and gas royalty datathe latest data available; and (3) factors identified by oil and gas companies that affect their ability to accurately report royalties owed to the federal government. To prevent erroneous data from being entered into MMS databases and to check the quality of data already entered, GAO recommends that MMS design (1) an edit check to prevent payors from submitting a claim for processing allowances on gas that is not processed and (2) new edit checks to examine the net effect of adjustments to certain key royalty variables. To simplify auditing, GAO recommends that MMS royalty payors submit data on unit agreements and reasons for changes to original data submissions. In commenting on a draft of this report, Interior generally agreed with our findings and recommendations.