§970.200. General. — Inbound Citations

(a) Priority of right for the issuance of licenses to new entrants shall be established on the basis of the chronological order in which exploration license applications filed under subpart A of this part and consolidated license and permit applications filed under § 971.214 of this chapter that are in substantial compliance are received by the Administrator.

(1) Amendments must be filed in accordance with the requirements for applications described in § 970.200.

(a) New entrant applications or amendments shall be filed in accordance with § 970.200 or, as applicable, § 971.214(b) and (c) of this chapter. A new entrant may file an application or amendment only at or after 1500 hours GMT (11:00 a.m. EDT) January 3, 1983. All applications or amendments filed at that time shall be deemed to be filed simultaneously, and, if in accordance with § 970.209, shall have priority of right over any application or amendment filed subsequently. Priority of right for any application or amendment filed after that time shall be established as described in § 970.209.

(a) This section shall govern all consolidated applications that seek both an exploration license and a commercial recovery permit under the Act. Consolidated license and permit applications shall follow the requirements in this section and not the requirements set forth in §§ 970.200 through 970.208 of this chapter, §§ 970.400 through 970.408 of this chapter, and §§ 971.200 through 971.210, and 971.300 through 971.303. All other requirements set forth in 15 CFR parts 970 and 971 that are not in conflict with the requirements of this section shall apply to a consolidated license and permit application, and all the sections in part 970 of this chapter and this part, except for this section, shall continue to apply to individual license or permit applications. With respect to consolidated applications filed under this section, in the event of any conflict or inconsistency between any provision of this section and any provision of part 970 of this chapter and this part, the provision of this section shall control.

(b) Any application for a license based upon pre-enactment exploration must be filed, at the address specified in § 970.200(b), no later than 5:00 p.m. EST on March 12, 1982 (or such later date and time as the Administrator may announce by regulation). All such applications filed at or before that time will be deemed to be filed on such closing date.

(b) In order to meet this requirement, a fee payment of $100,000 payable to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce, shall be submitted prior to or concurrent with each application; the application should state the method of payment and the date the payment was submitted. If costs incurred by NOAA in reviewing and processing an application are significantly less than or in excess of the original fee, the agency subsequently will determine those differences in costs and adjust the fee accordingly. If the costs are significantly less, NOAA will refund the difference. If they are significantly greater, the applicant will be required to submit the additional payment prior to issue or transfer of the license. In the case of an application for transfer of a license to an entity which has previously been found qualified for a license, the Administrator may, on the basis of pre-application consultations pursuant to § 970.200(d), reduce the fee in advance by an appropriate amount which reflects costs avoided by reliance on previous findings made in relation to the proposed transferee. If an applicant elects to pursue the ‘banking’ option under § 970.601(d), and exercises that option by submitting two applications, only one application fee needs to be submitted with respect to each use of the ‘banking’ option.