Natural Gas Environmental and Economic Security Act

Natural Gas Environmental and Economic Security Act

This bill amends the Federal Oil and Gas Royalty Management Act of 1982 to direct the Department of the Interior to establish specified requirements for:

• reducing and preventing the waste of natural gas, including by venting, flaring, and fugitive releases, from all oil and gas operations subject to mineral leasing law or the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976; and
• measuring and reporting the production and disposition of all gas subject to the mineral leasing laws to allow for more accurate accounting of gas consumed or lost by venting and flaring, and of fugitive releases of such gas.

All such requirements shall include consistent enforcement mechanisms for any operations not in compliance with them.

Royalties otherwise authorized or required to be paid for natural gas shall be assessed on all gas produced under the mineral leasing laws, including:

• gas used or consumed within the area of a tract for the benefit of the lease (commonly referred to as "beneficial use gas"); and
• all gas consumed or lost by venting, flaring, or fugitive releases through any equipment during upstream operations.

Exempted from assessment of these royalties is any natural gas:

• vented or flared in an acute emergency situation posing danger to human health that occurs for no more than 48 hours, or
• injected into the ground on a lease tract.