Interior releases second extractive report

The Department of the Interior has released its second annual report on revenues and payments associated with extractive industries, including oil and gas, on public lands. The report comes as part of the U.S. Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a global initiative for the public disclosure of natural resource revenues. In addition to the report, the agency has developed a redesigned interactive data portal that includes state-level datasets and contextual narrative for an improved understanding of key topics.

Following the publication of the first report in 2015, a multi-stakeholder group prioritized some key activities in 2016, including the encouragement of Alaska, Montana and Wyoming to join the reporting program. The group also arranged the development of a dataset containing production data for federal onshore and offshore areas for calendar years 2013 to 2015.

“The release of this report and successful USEITI implementation is a significant collaborative accomplishment by civil society, industry and government to bring transparency and easy access to revenue data from the extraction of resources on public lands,” said Interior Secretary Jewell. “The success of USEITI reporting not only underscores our domestic commitment to strong stewardship and accountability of natural resource revenues, but furthers President Obama’s open government partnership priorities by setting a global example for the use of technology to make extractive industry data more accessible to the public owners of these resources.”

According to information in the data portal, federal oil and gas revenues from Alaska in 2015 amounted to $19.6 million, $4.9 million of which came from lease bonus bids and lease rentals. Alaska oil production for 2015, from all lands, totaled to 176 million barrels.

- ALAN BAILEY