tailieunhanh - OIL AND GAS BONDS - Bonding Requirements and BLM Expenditures to Reclaim Orphaned Wells

he product of the risk-neutral default intensity and the loss rate equals the instantaneous credit spread. Like Duffee (1999) and Elton et al. (2001), we assume a constant loss rate and allow the default intensity to vary stochastically over time. We model each firm’s default intensity as a function of a low number of latent common factors and a latent firm-specific factor. This extends the analysis of Duffee (1999), who estimates a separate model for each firm. As in Duffee (1999), all factors follow square-root diffusion processes. We use a latent factor model, since Collin-Dufresne et al. (2001) show that observable financial and economic variables cannot explain. | United States Government Accountability Office GAO Report to Congressional Requesters January 2010 OIL AND GAS BONDS Bonding Requirements and BlM Expenditures to Reclaim Orphaned Wells GAO Accountability Integrity Reliability GAO-10-245 January 2010 À GAO Accountability Integrity Reliability Highlights OIL AND GAS BONDS Bonding Requirements and BLM Expenditures to Reclaim Orphaned Wells Highlights of GAO-10-245 a report to congressional requesters Why GAO Did This Study The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 directs the Department of the Interior Interior to manage lands for multiple uses while also taking any action to prevent unnecessary or undue degradation of the land. To do this Interior s Bureau of Land Management BLM among other things requires oil and gas operators to reclaim the land they disturb and post a bond to help ensure they do so. Despite these requirements not all operators perform reclamation. If the bond is not sufficient to cover well plugging and surface reclamation and there are no responsible or liable parties the well is considered orphaned and BLM uses federal dollars to fund reclamation. The 12 western states where most oil and gas production occurs and other Interior agencies also require bonds to ensure reclamation. GAO was asked to 1 determine the number value and coverage of bonds held by BLM for oil and gas operations 2 determine the amount that BLM has paid to reclaim orphaned wells over the past 20 years and the number of orphaned wells BLM has identified but has not yet reclaimed and 3 compare BLM s bonding requirements for oil and gas operations with those the 12 western states use for oil and gas operations on state and private lands and other Interior agencies bonding requirements for other resources. Among other things GAO analyzed BLM data on wells and BLM-held bonds and interviewed BLM officials. View GAO-10-245 or key components. For more information contact Anu K. Mittal 202 512-3841 or mittala@. What .