For Immediate Release: Contact: Nicolette Nye
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 (202) 347-6900
NOIA Statement on Interior Budget Request
Non-Producing Lease Fee Shows Lack of Understanding
Washington, D.C. – NOIA President Randall Luthi today issued the following statement on the Obama Administration’s Budget Request for the Department of the Interior:
“The Administration’s budget request for an additional fee on yet to be producing leases shows a remarkable lack of understanding about geology and the oil and natural gas industry. If the Administration’s goal is to produce more home grown energy, this not the way to go. Using this logic, charging more for a fishing license means you will catch more fish, or charging more for a driver’s license means you will get better gas mileage. Neither is true. What is true is the offshore oil and gas industry uses the most modern, sophisticated geological and geophysical methods to predict where valuable deposits of oil and natural gas might be found. Once they pay top price for the lease, they pay a rental fee until the lease is producing. If the lease is not developed within the lease terms -- usually 3, 5 or 10 years --that lease is returned to the Federal government to be sold again. Given today’s economy and today’s prices, exploration companies are not sitting on leases, because they don’t have a chance of making a profit, nor can they supply more American jobs or produce more American energy, until they actually drill. This old, tired ‘use it or lose it’ philosophy should be lost for good.”
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NOIA is the only national trade association representing all segments of the offshore industry with an interest in the exploration and production of both traditional and renewable energy resources on the nation’s outer continental shelf. NOIA’s mission is to secure reliable access and a fair regulatory and economic environment for the companies that develop the nation’s valuable offshore energy resources in an environmentally responsible manner. The NOIA membership comprises more than 270 companies engaged in business activities ranging from producing to drilling, engineering to marine and air transport, offshore construction to equipment manufacture and supply, telecommunications to finance and insurance, and renewable energy.
