Title 30

SECTION 1206.269

1206.269 How do I determine washing allowances if I do not have an arm's-length washing contract

§ 1206.269 How do I determine washing allowances if I do not have an arm's-length washing contract?

(a) This section applies if you or your affiliate do(es) not have an arm's-length washing contract, including situations where you or your affiliate provides your own washing services. You must calculate your washing allowance based on your or your affiliate's reasonable, actual costs for washing during the reporting period using the procedures prescribed in this section.

(b) Your or your affiliate's actual costs may include:

(1) Capital costs and operating and maintenance expenses under paragraphs (d), (e), and (f) of this section.

(2) Overhead under paragraph (g) of this section.

(3) Depreciation under paragraph (h) of this section and a return on undepreciated capital investment under paragraph (i) of this section, or you may elect to use a cost equal to a return on the initial depreciable capital investment in the wash plant under paragraph (j) of this section. After you have elected to use either method for a wash plant, you may not later elect to change to the other alternative without ONRR's approval. If ONRR accepts your request to change methods, you may use your changed method beginning with the production month following the month when ONRR received your change request.

(4) A return on the reasonable salvage value, under paragraph (i) of this section, after you have depreciated the wash plant to its reasonable salvage value.

(c) You may not use any cost as a deduction that duplicates all or part of any other cost that you use under this section.

(d) Allowable capital investment costs are generally those for depreciable fixed assets (including costs of delivery and installation of capital equipment), which are an integral part of the wash plant.

(e) Allowable operating expenses include the following:

(1) Operations supervision and engineering

(2) Operations labor

(3) Fuel

(4) Utilities

(5) Materials

(6) Ad valorem property taxes

(7) Rent

(8) Supplies

(9) Any other directly allocable and attributable operating expenses that you can document

(f) Allowable maintenance expenses include the following:

(1) Maintenance of the wash plant

(2) Maintenance of equipment

(3) Maintenance labor

(4) Other directly allocable and attributable maintenance expenses that you can document

(g) Overhead, directly attributable and allocable to the operation and maintenance of the wash plant, is an allowable expense. State and Federal income taxes and severance taxes and other fees, including royalties, are not allowable expenses.

(h)(1) To calculate depreciation, you may elect to use either a straight-line depreciation method based on the life of the wash plant or the life of the reserves that the wash plant services, or you may elect to use a unit-of-production method. After you make an election, you may not change methods without ONRR's approval. If ONRR accepts your request to change methods, you may use your changed method beginning with the production month following the month when ONRR received your change request.

(2) A change in ownership of a wash plant will not alter the depreciation schedule that the original washer/lessee established for purposes of the allowance calculation.

(3) With or without a change in ownership, you may depreciate a wash plant only once.

(i)(1) To calculate a return on undepreciated capital investment, you must multiply the remaining undepreciated capital balance as of the beginning of the period for which you are calculating the washing allowance by the rate of return provided in paragraph (k) of this section.

(2) After you have depreciated a wash plant to its reasonable salvage value, you may continue to include in the allowance calculation a cost equal to the salvage value multiplied by a rate of return determined under paragraph (k) of this section.

(j) As an alternative to using depreciation and a return on undepreciated capital investment, as provided under paragraph (b)(3) of this section, you may use as a cost an amount equal to the allowable initial capital investment in the wash plant multiplied by the rate of return as determined under paragraph (k) of this section. You may not include depreciation in your allowance.

(k) The rate of return is the industrial rate associated with Standard & Poor's BBB rating.

(1) You must use the monthly average BBB rate that Standard & Poor's publishes for the first month for which the allowance is applicable.

(2) You must re-determine the rate at the beginning of each subsequent calendar year.