The moderator of a panel discussion spoke of federal officials "reaching out" to the industry at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston during the first week of May.
Response to a surprise tax hike on UK oil production has been swift and predictably ominous. In its 2011 budget announced in March, the government announced changes that will raise the effective tax rate on UK oil and gas production to 62-81%, depending on field age.
The decision to skip a year's worth of US reserves estimates recalls long-ago arguments about the superiority of government data over supposedly tainted numbers from the oil and gas industry.
Energy prices plunged May 5 with front-month crude falling 9% to less than $100/bbl in New York as the dollar escalated 1.9% over the euro after the European Central Bank indicated no hike in lending rates.
Technological breakthroughs have increased the amount of economically recoverable oil and natural gas resources in the US, industry experts told the US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, but they warned that future production will be limited unless other challenges are addressed.
US Senate Democrats announced a bill on May 10 that would increase federal taxes for the nation's five biggest oil companies by eliminating several key deductions.
Officials from three other national associations joined the American Petroleum Institute on May 9 in rejecting calls by US President Barack Obama and other Democrats to penalize the oil and gas industry by repealing several of its key federal tax deductions.
The US House of Representatives approved a bill that would compel the US Department of the Interior to hold federal Outer Continental Shelf lease sales that it canceled following the 2010 Macondo well accident and crude oil spill.
A new study published by Scotland's University of Aberdeen highlights the substantial long-term reductions in field investment and oil and gas production that would result from the increased tax rates recently announced by the British government.
Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it might have to sell some of its assets in the North Sea and reduce investment in the region due to the recent tax increases imposed by the British government.
The oil and gas industry may be interested to learn that top Japanese shipping lines plan major investments in vessels to carry key natural resources such as oil and LNG.
International oil companies operating in the UK voiced their displeasure with recently announced tax hikes, writing in a collective letter to London's The Times that investor confidence has been damaged by the increases.
Opponents to the rule of Libya's leader Moammar Gadhafi are receiving payments from oil sales through a trust fund established in Qatar, according to officials familiar with the transactions.
"Political people don't pay attention to individual permits. They don't interfere with permitting for political purposes," Ned Farquhar, deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management in the US Department of the Interior, told energy professionals May 5 at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston.
Without sufficient investments in oil field development and the use of new, advanced technologies, Mexico faces becoming a net oil importer in 10 years, according to research by Rice University's James A. Baker Institute and Oxford University.
