Jun 22, 2015 U.S. Oil and Gas Producers Submit Formal Comments on the Administration’s Proposal to Raise Royalty Rates on Federal Lands
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), in conjunction with Western Energy Alliance, submitted formal comments last Friday to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on their Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) to raise royalty rates on federal lands. IPAA Senior Vice President of Government Relations and Political Affairs Dan Naatz issued the following statement today:
“Raising royalty rates and rental rates will have a negative impact on federal oil and natural gas production. Any proposal to increase onshore royalty rates will ultimately result in fewer U.S. jobs, less American-made energy, and will hurt our nation’s energy security. Raising fees on America’s independent producers – companies with an average of just 15 employees – will cause small, family-owned businesses to suffer and further discourage energy development on federal lands, resulting in less money paid to the federal treasury. This is a critically important issue to IPAA’s membership and to independent producers operating on federal lands. We hope our comments will be given fair consideration and will be constructively incorporated as BLM moves forward with their proposal.”
IPAA has long-been critical on proposals to increase royalty rates for producers. IPAA and Western Energy Alliance’s formal comments identify detailed concerns related to royalty rates, annual rental payments, minimum acceptable bids, bonding requirements, and civil penalty assessments for Federal onshore oil and gas leases.
About the Independent Petroleum Association of America
The Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) is the leading, national upstream trade association representing oil and natural gas producers that drill 95 percent of the nation’s oil and natural gas wells. These companies account for 54 percent of America’s oil production, 85 percent of its natural gas production, and support over 2.1 million American jobs.
