BLM Flooded With Royalty Relief Requests From Gas/Oil Drillers - 12.5% Too High; They Want 0.5% Rate
The Bureau of Land Management has been deluged by oil and gas industry requests for cutting royalty payments or suspending oil leases, according to interviews with industry sources, Interior Department documents reviewed by E&E News and advocacy groups tracking applications for coronavirus-related relief.
The few dozen requests visible in BLM's public database don't account for hundreds more that have been made in recent weeks, as oil and gas operators warn they may have to shut in wells due to historically low oil prices. In all, more than 1,000 applications for royalty relief or lease suspensions have flooded Western BLM state offices following Interior guidance last month that promised rapid processing during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the documents.
Interior officials have not released full information about those requests amid scrutiny of what critics have deemed a bailout to industry, prompting frustrated House Democrats to push for hard numbers (E&E Daily, May 19). E&E News has found that state offices are currently responding to scores of companies proposing that BLM slash royalty rates down to as low as 0.5% from the standing 12.5% of fair market value for oil and gas extracted from public land. BLM's LR2000 database, which includes information from the thousands of oil and gas leases overseen by the agency, shows fewer than 100.
"I think the numbers are higher," said Autumn Hanna, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, which tracks lease information in the public database and had only found 76 royalty relief requests from Utah as of yesterday.
EDIT
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2020/05/20/stories/1063185335
= new reply since forum marked as read
