§6383 — Title 42 The Public Health and Welfare | U.S. Code

Summary

Require the Securities and Exchange Commission to set standard accounting rules for people who produce crude oil or natural gas in the United States. The SEC must create these rules no later than 24 months after December 22, 1975, and the rules must apply to any producer’s fiscal year that begins 3 months after the date the rules are set or made effective under subsection (b)(2). The SEC must consult with the Secretary, the Government Accountability Office, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The SEC can write its own rules or accept rules from the Financial Accounting Standards Board if it is confident companies will follow them as if the SEC had issued them. The accounting rules must let domestic and foreign operations be reported separately. They must allow separate reporting of capital, revenue, and operating costs for five stages (prospecting, acquisition, exploration, development, and production), require disclosure of reserves and activities, classify financial data by function to match reserve and operating statistics, and include any other data needed to build the energy database.

Title 42, §6383

The Public Health and Welfare — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)For purposes of developing a reliable energy data base related to the production of crude oil and natural gas, the Securities and Exchange Commission shall take such steps as may be necessary to assure the development and observance of accounting practices to be followed in the preparation of accounts by persons engaged, in whole or in part, in the production of crude oil or natural gas in the United States. Such practices shall be developed not later than 24 months after December 22, 1975, and shall take effect with respect to the fiscal year of each such person which begins 3 months after the date on which such practices are prescribed or made effective under the authority of subsection (b)(2).

(b)In carrying out its responsibilities under subsection (a), the Securities and Exchange Commission shall—

(1)consult with the Secretary, the Government Accountability Office, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission with respect to accounting practices to be developed under subsection (a), and

(2)have authority to prescribe rules applicable to persons engaged in the production of crude oil or natural gas, or make effective by recognition, or by other appropriate means indicating a determination to rely on, accounting practices developed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, if the Securities and Exchange Commission is assured that such practice will be observed by persons engaged in the production of crude oil or natural gas to the same extent as would result if the Securities and Exchange Commission had prescribed such practices by rule.

(c)The Securities and Exchange Commission shall assure that accounting practices developed pursuant to this section, to the greatest extent practicable, permit the compilation, treating domestic and foreign operations as separate categories, of an energy data base consisting of:

(1)The separate calculation of capital, revenue, and operating cost information pertaining to—

(A)prospecting,

(B)acquisition,

(C)exploration,

(D)development, and

(E)production,

(2)The full presentation of the financial information of persons engaged in the production of crude oil or natural gas, including—

(A)disclosure of reserves and operating activities, both domestic and foreign, to facilitate evaluation of financial effort and result; and

(B)classification of financial information by function to facilitate correlation with reserve and operating statistics, both domestic and foreign.

(3)Such other information, projections, and relationships of collected data as shall be necessary to facilitate the compilation of such data base.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2004—Subsec. (b)(1). Pub. L. 108–271 substituted “Government Accountability Office” for “General Accounting Office”. 1998—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 105–388, § 5(a)(15)(A), substituted “with respect to” for “with repect to” in concluding provisions. Subsec. (c)(1). Pub. L. 105–388, § 5(a)(15)(B), substituted “, controlling,” for “controlling” in concluding provisions.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Transfer of Functions

“Secretary” and “Federal Energy Regulatory Commission” substituted for “Federal Energy Administration” and “Federal Power Commission”, respectively, in subsec. (b)(1) pursuant to section 301, 402, 703, and 707 of Pub. L. 95–91, which are classified to section 7151, 7172, 7293, and 7297 of this title and which terminated the Federal Energy Administration and transferred its functions (with certain exceptions) to the Secretary of Energy and terminated the Federal Power Commission and transferred its functions to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Secretary of Energy.

§6383 Accounting practices