U.S. to Raise Royalty Rates for Oil and Gas Leases in the Gulf

[deminks]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/washington/10royalty.html

WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 — The Bush administration, accused of failing to collect billions of dollars from companies that drill for oil and gas in federal waters, announced on Tuesday that it would demand higher royalties on all new deepwater leases in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Interior Department said it would raise the royalty rate to 16.7 percent from 12.5 percent of oil and gas sales, a change that it estimated would increase government revenue by $4.5 billion over 20 years.

(snip)

But the change will not alter any of the thousands of existing offshore leases, nor will it affect a mistake in hundreds of leases that could allow companies to escape as much as $10 billion in royalties over the next five years.

(snip)

Next week, House Democrats hope to pass legislation that would punish companies that refuse to renegotiate, either by imposing a stiff new tax on their production or by prohibiting them from acquiring new leases.

“Raising the royalty rates will do nothing to help the situation unless this administration expresses a true commitment to actually collecting these payments,” said Representative Nick J. Rahall II, Democrat of West Virginia and chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources. “The oil and gas royalties system is broken and needs to be fixed.”

[luckyleftyme2]

1. ONCE AGAIN

Once again 'dubya" bows to his masters.And to hell with the rest of us !