256.62—Assignment of lease or interest in lease.
This section explains how to assign record title and other interests in OCS oil and gas or sulphur leases.
(a)
MMS may approve the assignment to you of the ownership of the record title to a lease or any undivided interest in a lease, or an officially designated subdivision of a lease, only if:
(b)
An assignment shall be void if it is made pursuant to any prelease agreement described in § 256.44(c) of this part that would cause a bid to be disqualified.
(c)
Any approved assignment shall be deemed to be effective on the first day of the lease month following its filing in the appropriate office of the MMS, unless at the request of the parties, an earlier date is specified in the approval.
(d)
You, as assignor, are liable for all obligations that accrue under your lease before the date that the Regional Director approves your request for assignment of the record title in the lease. The Regional Director's approval of the assignment does not relieve you of accrued lease obligations that your assignee, or a subsequent assignee, fails to perform.
(e)
Your assignee and each subsequent assignee are liable for all obligations that accrue under the lease after the date that the Regional Director approves the governing assignment. They must:
(1)
Comply with all the terms and conditions of the lease and all regulations issued under the Act; and
(2)
Remedy all existing environmental problems on the tract, properly abandon all wells, and reclaim the lease site in accordance with part 250, subpart Q.
(f)
If your assignee, or a subsequent assignee, fails to perform any obligation under the lease or the regulations in this chapter, the Regional Director may require you to bring the lease into compliance to the extent that the obligation accrued before the Regional Director approved the assignment of your interest in the lease.