SANTA FE, NM – So far in 2019, the State Land Office has collected over $1.5 million from royalty audits, a 47% increase from 2018. These funds were collected by the Royalty Management Division team after audits were conducted on Land Office business with Chevron, DCP Midstream, Marbob Energy, Dugan Production, and Energen Resources. The additional $1.5 million from 2019 royalty audits will add to the corpus of the Land Grant Permanent Fund, which funds public schools, universities, and hospitals throughout the state.
Since assuming office in January, Commissioner Garcia Richard has been working to enhance the auditing capacity at the State Land Office. The Royalty Management Division is tasked with auditing 85% of Land Office royalty revenue every five years. Staff auditors and compliance analysts look for mistakes and errors in processing from all businesses that lease state trust land and are required to pay royalty on oil or gas extracted on the leases.