In fiscal year 1997, the Department of the Interior's Minerais Management Service (MMs) collected about $4.1 billion in royalties from oil and gas leases on federal lands. By law, the states in which these leases are located receive a share of the royalties, which are calculated as a percentage of the value of the oil or gas that is produced. The value of much of the oil from federal leases has been based on posted prices. However, recent evidence indicates that oil is often sold for more than the posted prices, suggesting that the value of the oil and federal royalties should both be higher. On the basis of this evidence, in 1995 MMS began revising its regulations for valuing oil from federal leases. In February 1998 MMS issued its most recent revision. The proposed regulations would reduce the use of posted prices to value much of the oil and would instead generally require that other, and often higher, prices be used. Although states that receive distributions of these royalties generally support the proposed regulations, oil industry representatives generally oppose them, believing that oil companies should not pay royalties on higher prices. As an alternative, the oil industry has suggested that MMS be required to accept, as the federal government's royalties, a percentage of the actual oil and gas produced from federal leases (known as royalties in kind), rather than cash. MMS would then sell this oil and gas to generate revenues. Legislation mandating that MMS accept federal oil and gas royalties in kind has been introduced in both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. You asked us to address the following: (1) the information used by MMS to justify the need for revising its oil valuation regulations; (2) how MMS has addressed concerns expressed by the oil industry and states in developing these regulations; and (3) the feasibility of the federal government's taking its oil and gas royalties in kind.