WASHINGTON, May 25 (UPI) -- The U.S. Interior Department said it was considering ways to make the system of royalties owed from domestic oil and gas production more efficient.
The Interior Department said it would examine a geographically based system to consider the value of oil and natural gas produced in the country.
"Regulations that were initially developed in the 1980s have not kept pace with the significant changes that have occurred in the oil and natural gas markets," said Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar in a statement.
The department said regulations that consider royalties on a transaction-by-transaction basis are overly burdensome.
The Interior Department said it would open the proposal to public comment before drafting new regulations.
More than $9.1 billion was collected and disbursed from domestic energy-related activities in the United States during the 2010 fiscal year.
