(a) General. Section 104 of the Act provides that no application for the issuance or transfer of an exploration license will be certified unless the applicant pays to NOAA a reasonable administrative fee, which must reflect the reasonable administrative costs incurred in reviewing and processing the application.

(b) Amount. In order to meet this requirement, the application must include a fee payment of $100,000, payable to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce. 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.