Roy-
Good to hear. I know the administration is trying to set a good example for the rest of the world with their moves, but not so sure it also a smart example.
Weekly info for NM since mid-year 2020. And slightly more State permits are getting approved than in 2020.
Definitely was a slowdown in Fed permitting in late Feb and March. Overall numbers from Jan-April 21 in SE NM (different wells in each bucket, but the #s are important):
970 APDs submitted to the BLM, 514 APDs approved by the BLM, and 321 Federal wells spud
Capital constraints a far bigger bottleneck than the BLM. BLM continue to approve wells faster than they are getting drilled. Pretty much everything of note is leased in NM. So I don’t really see much effect of anything. But I’m also not trying to get a BLM sundry out of Carlsbad, just looking at the data.
Would be nice if EOG didn’t submit 2000 APDs and gum up the whole system though.
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What’s a good link to view current unapproved Devon Federal APD’S on New Mexico’s oil conservation website NMoilboy?
Here are the bills being considered by House Natural Resources Committee to redo the federal leasing program.
Big win for states who challenged the Biden Leasing Ban. The federal court in Louisiana issued a nationwide temporary injunction halting the ban and ordering resumption of leasing sales.
Many legal experts I have read felt the ban was probably illegal, as federal law mandates the lease auctions. If it holds up, yet another example of empty executive orders being used to placate a constituency when they know it will probably not hold up. Plenty of examples of this with Trump also. Yet another example of what gridlock gets you, with problems not being fixed, and presidents who try to nibble around the edges through executive orders. In this case, it was more of a big chomp than a nibble, though.
Here is the opinion if interested.
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Wall Street Journal editorial accuses Deb Haaland and Interior Department of stalling on federal lease auction and ignoring the federal court order.
US now “reviewing” leasing in Alaska Wildlife Refuge. Not sure how this is supposed to be different than the review already underway, unless they are going to apply a different standard, which thye probably are.
Discussion about the future of pipelines.
Really good WSJ editorial about how not every weather disaster means climate change is leading to more property destruction and death. In fact, the figures are moving in the other direction.
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Now today 8/11/2021, he wants OPEC to ramp up production in foreign oil to lower America’s gasoline costs? What’s up with this going backwards and America depending on foreign oil again? (((( shaking my cage)))) mk
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Dumocrats need cheap gasoline.
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sorry to be political but the answer is to vote in midterms and watch/keep dems away from ballot boxes during/after hours.
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Thank you for the links Wade!
“There are a lot of loud voices in energy—particularly oil and gas right now. …"
Texas Farm Bureau has run a series of articles about the impacts of the tax proposals on famers and ranchers. The same applies if your family owns minerals. Below is an example of one article.
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Here is an update on what is going on in Congress with the tax bills and the many, many things in the $3.5 trillion bill (and the infrastructure bill) that will affect oil and gas ownership and development. I am posting here, but percentage depletion allowance is on the chopping block, as we know.
The House Takes Action on the Budget and Infrastructure/ Fall Congressional Outlook
The House passed, by a party-line vote of 220-212, a multi-section procedural measure (H. Res. 601) which includes the adoption of the Senate-passed FY 2022 budget resolution or “blueprint” (S. Con. Res. 14) and outlines a date certain for voting on the Senate-passed infrastructure bill.
With the House’s adoption of the FY22 budget resolution by both chambers, it now officially kickstarts the budget reconciliation process that will allow congressional Democrats to pass a ten year $3.5 trillion annual expansive social spending and tax package aimed at implementing the President’s “Build Back Better agenda,” including large swaths of President Joe Biden’s proposed American Jobs and Families Plans unveiled earlier this year.
The FY22 budget resolution directs 13 House and Senate committees to write and markup their legislative components of the reconciliation package by Wednesday, September 15 .
To achieve this, each committee gets an “instruction” – think of it as an allocation of funding – that they in turn use to develop legislative language that will result in spending and/or revenue raised to achieve the $3.5 trillion annual spending target.
Once, the multiple bills are marked up and passed by the committees, the House Budget Committee will then bundle them together into a single, mammoth bill prior to a vote by the House, which is likely to occur during the week of September 20.
The House Ways and Means Committee – the tax writing committee that would consider elimination of percentage depletion and IDC – is scheduled to meet September 9 and 10 and then again on the 13th and 14th, to review and markup its contribution to the reconciliation package.
In the Senate, 12 Senate committees are also tasked by the FY22 budget resolution with writing their parts of the reconciliation package by September 15 .
This is expected to be followed by debate and an amendments process – details yet to be determined – to the Senate bill prior to passage, with only a simple majority being required.
Given the tight timeframes, it is expected Senate Democrats will be working with their House Democratic counterparts behind-the-scenes over the next three weeks to come to agreement on various policy and spending items. It’s not clear yet if the Senate committees will formally mark up their legislative contributions, or simply provide text directly to the Senate Budget Committee.
H. Res. 601, mentioned above, also requires the House to consider the $1.2 trillion Senate-passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act no later than Monday, September 27 .
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) reached a deal that included this commitment last Tuesday with 10 moderate House Democrats, led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), who had initially threatened not to vote in favor of the FY22 budget resolution until the House voted on the Senate-passed infrastructure bill first.
Speaker Pelosi has pledged for months that the House would wait to vote on the bipartisan Senate-passed infrastructure bill until the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package was also passed by the Senate because of previous threats from progressives that they would oppose the infrastructure bill until their priorities were addressed in the reconciliation package.
Speaker Pelosi added in a statement on Tuesday that she is “committing to pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill by September 27.”
In order for the House to realistically pass the Senate-passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act by September 27, both the House and Senate will need to have made significant progress on the budget reconciliation package prior to that date. So, there is skepticism at this stage those dates will be fully met, though many forces – not the least of which are the Moderate Democrats – are expected to keep the pressure on toward meeting that date.
The bottom line: the process, the dates, and efforts at consensus across the chambers’ regarding reconciliation is very fluid. The time to act is now. .
The Senate reconvenes on September 13th and the House on September 20th.
To make matters more interesting, it should be noted that when they return, the two chambers will also need to determine: 1) how to continue to fund the government – the FY 21 fiscal year ends September 30, and only the House has passed all 12 approps bills. The Senate has passed none. and; 2) the need to raise the federal debt limit looms – the government is expected to hit the ceiling on the federal “credit card” borrowing limit – and will likely be necessary sometime in October.
Interior Department supposed to comply with the court order and resume lease auctions, including New Mexico.
Here is the letter NARO and 37 other organizations sent to Congress about the foolishness of eliminating percentage depletion allowance. IF YOU ARE INCLINED TO CALL THE DEMOCRATIC REPRESENTATIVES AND SENATORS IN YOUR STATE YOU NEED TO DO SO ASAP. THE LETTER HAS A LOT OF GOOD TALKING POINTS, BUT OTHERS ARE:
| - | Percentage Depletion Allowance is the same concept as depreciation for real estate investors |
|---|---|
| - | The vast majority of the millions of mineral owners who get royalties make less than $1000/mo |
| - | This is a 15% tax increase on the royalties of millions of Americans making less than $400,000/year |
| - | Eliminating percentage depletion will lead to more abandoned wells |
| - | Trying to impose capital gains taxes on death even if the property has not sold will cause sales of family farms, ranches, and minerals |
| - | Most of those that will have to sell to pay capital gains are small, thinly capitalized owners who don’t have the cash to pay the taxes |
| - | The buyers of these family minerals will be big mineral buying hedge funds, which will increase wealth inequality |
| - | We should not be raising taxes when it will drive production overseas and we will lose our energy independence |
Ways Means Comm Letter 20210908.pdf (1.8 MB)
Methane fee looks like it is surviving in the House version of the pending bill.
Here is the report making suggested changes to the oil and gas leasing program on federal lands.
I agree it is pretty ridiculous to be leasing federal lands on ten year terms and 12.5% royalty. However, I have serious doubts whether the administration will be able to restrain themselves from slipping in requirements which are actually inserted to discourage or prevent development, or to set up a slowplay regulatory process to accomplish the same goal.
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