(a) In general

All money received from sales, bonuses, royalties including interest charges collected under the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act of 1982 [30 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.], and rentals of the public lands under the provisions of this chapter and the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 [30 U.S.C. 1001 et seq.], shall be paid into the Treasury of the United States; and, subject to the provisions of subsection (b), 50 per centum thereof shall be paid by the Secretary of the Treasury to the State other than Alaska within the boundaries of which the leased lands or deposits are or were located; said moneys paid to any of such States on or after January 1, 1976, to be used by such State and its subdivisions, as the legislature of the State may direct giving priority to those subdivisions of the State socially or economically impacted by development of minerals leased under this chapter, for (i) planning, (ii) construction and maintenance of public facilities, and (iii) provision of public service; and excepting those from Alaska, 40 per centum thereof shall be paid into, reserved, appropriated, as part of the reclamation fund created by the Act of Congress known as the Reclamation Act, approved June 17, 1902, and of those from Alaska, 90 per centum thereof shall be paid to the State of Alaska for disposition by the legislature thereof: Provided, That all moneys which may accrue to the United States under the provisions of this chapter and the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 from lands within the naval petroleum reserves shall be deposited in the Treasury as “miscellaneous receipts”, as provided by section 8733(b) of title 10. All moneys received under the provisions of this chapter and the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 not otherwise disposed of by this section shall be credited to miscellaneous receipts. Payments to States under this section with respect to any moneys received by the United States, shall be made not later than the last business day of the month in which such moneys are warranted by the United States Treasury to the Secretary as having been received, except for any portion of such moneys which is under challenge and placed in a suspense account pending resolution of a dispute. Such warrants shall be issued by the United States Treasury not later than 10 days after receipt of such moneys by the Treasury. Moneys placed in a suspense account which are determined to be payable to a State shall be made not later than the last business day of the month in which such dispute is resolved. Any such amount placed in a suspense account pending resolution shall bear interest until the dispute is resolved.

(b) Deduction for administrative costs

Ask a business law question, get an answer ASAP!
Thousands of highly rated, verified business lawyers.
Click here to chat with a lawyer about your rights.

Terms Used In 30 USC 191

  • Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
  • Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
  • State: means a State, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any other territory or possession of the United States. See 1 USC 7

In determining the amount of payments to the States under this section, beginning in fiscal year 2014 and for each year thereafter, the amount of such payments shall be reduced by 2 percent for any administrative or other costs incurred by the United States in carrying out the program authorized by this chapter, and the amount of such reduction shall be deposited to miscellaneous receipts of the Treasury.

(c) Rentals received on or after August 8, 2005

(1) Notwithstanding the first sentence of subsection (a), any rentals received from leases in any State (other than the State of Alaska) on or after August 8, 2005, shall be deposited in the Treasury, to be allocated in accordance with paragraph (2).

(2) Of the amounts deposited in the Treasury under paragraph (1)—

(A) 50 percent shall be paid by the Secretary of the Treasury to the State within the boundaries of which the leased land is located or the deposits were derived; and

(B) 50 percent shall be deposited in a special fund in the Treasury, to be known as the “BLM Permit Processing Improvement Fund” (referred to in this subsection as the “Fund”).


(3) Use of fund.—

(A) In general.—The Fund shall be available to the Secretary of the Interior for expenditure, without further appropriation and without fiscal year limitation, for the coordination and processing of oil and gas use authorizations on onshore Federal and Indian trust mineral estate land.

(B) Accounts.—The Secretary shall divide the Fund into—

(i) a Rental Account (referred to in this subsection as the “Rental Account”) comprised of rental receipts collected under this section; and

(ii) a Fee Account (referred to in this subsection as the “Fee Account”) comprised of fees collected under subsection (d).


(4) Rental account.—

(A) In general.—The Secretary shall use the Rental Account for—

(i) the coordination and processing of oil and gas use authorizations on onshore Federal and Indian trust mineral estate land under the jurisdiction of the Project offices identified under section 15924(d) of title 42; and

(ii) training programs for development of expertise related to coordinating and processing oil and gas use authorizations.


(B) Allocation.—In determining the allocation of the Rental Account among Project offices for a fiscal year, the Secretary shall consider—

(i) the number of applications for permit to drill received in a Project office during the previous fiscal year;

(ii) the backlog of applications described in clause (i) in a Project office;

(iii) publicly available industry forecasts for development of oil and gas resources under the jurisdiction of a Project office; and

(iv) any opportunities for partnership with local industry organizations and educational institutions in developing training programs to facilitate the coordination and processing of oil and gas use authorizations.


(5) Fee account.—

(A) In general.—The Secretary shall use the Fee Account for the coordination and processing of oil and gas use authorizations on onshore Federal and Indian trust mineral estate land.

(B) Allocation.—The Secretary shall transfer not less than 75 percent of the revenues collected by an office for the processing of applications for permits to the State office of the State in which the fees were collected.

(d) BLM oil and gas permit processing fee

(1) In general

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for each of fiscal years 2016 through 2026, the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Bureau of Land Management, shall collect a fee for each new application for a permit to drill that is submitted to the Secretary.

(2) Amount

The amount of the fee shall be $9,500 for each new application, as indexed for United States dollar inflation from October 1, 2015 (as measured by the Consumer Price Index).

(3) Use

Of the fees collected under this subsection for a fiscal year, the Secretary shall transfer—

(A) for each of fiscal years 2016 through 2019—

(i) 15 percent to the field offices that collected the fees and used to process protests, leases, and permits under this chapter, subject to appropriation; and

(ii) 85 percent to the BLM Permit Processing Improvement Fund established under subsection (c)(2)(B) (referred to in this subsection as the “Fund”); and


(B) for each of fiscal years 2020 through 2026, all of the fees to the Fund.

(4) Additional costs

During each of fiscal years of 2016 through 2026, the Secretary shall not implement a rulemaking that would enable an increase in fees to recover additional costs related to processing applications for permits to drill.