Followup on Actions Taken in Response to GAO Recommendations Concerning Interior's March 1979 Shut-In and Flaring Wells Report

Under the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Lands Act Amendments of 1978, the Secretary of the Interior is required to prepare an annual report listing all shut-in oil and gas wells and wells flaring natural gas on OCS leases. In June 1980, GAO was advised by Interior and U.S. Geological Survey officials that the Department's fiscal year 1979 shut-in and flaring well report had been drafted but was not yet issued. The report was issued in October 1980; however, prior to that date, GAO reviewed several areas of continuing weaknesses in the methodology used by the Department in allowing wells to be shut-in or to flare natural gas. GAO was also concerned about the Interior's 6-month delay in issuing the fiscal 1979 report and about questions raised by Department officials regarding whether the report fulfills congressional intent.

In its review, GAO found that the Survey's monitoring efforts regarding shut-in well problems and restoration dates do not provide an independent assessment or periodic questioning of the validity of operator-reported conditions and estimates. In the area of natural gas flaring, the Survey's monitoring efforts are unsystematic and undocumented. The Survey needs more information to decide whether to approve operators' requests for long-term gas flaring, and to determine whether unreported emergency flaring is occuring. The Survey also needs to follow up to ensure that operators suspected of excessive flaring have actually ceased such flaring. The Interior has not complied with its legislated mandate because the report was not issued in the required timeframe, and the actions taken to prepare it leave much to be desired. Based on the manner in which shut-in and flaring data are gathered, monitored, and reported by the Department, the oversight needs of Congress are not being met. In fact, some of the Survey officials charged with the responsibility for preparing the annual report have expressed uncertainty as to the intent and usefulness of the report.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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