Federal Oil Valuation: Efforts to Revise Regulations and an Analysis of Royalties in Kind

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Minerals Management Service's (MMS) efforts to revise its regulations for valuing oil from federal leases, focusing on: (1) the information used by MMS to justify the need for revising its oil valuation regulations; (2) how MMS has addressed concerns expressed by the oil industry and states in developing these regulations; and (3) the feasibility of the federal government's taking its oil and gas royalties in kind, as indicated by existing studies and programs.