As Profits Soar, Companies Pay U.S. Less for Gas Rights

[Pale Blue Dot]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/23/politics/23leases.html?hp&ex=1137992400&en=6235848f4d2d3c8d&ei=5094&partner=homepage

At a time when energy prices and industry profits are soaring, the federal government collected little more money last year than it did five years ago from the companies that extracted more than $60 billion in oil and gas from publicly owned lands and coastal waters.

Shifting Numbers on Price Reports (January 23, 2006) If royalty payments in fiscal 2005 for natural gas had risen in step with market prices, the government would have received about $700 million more than it actually did, a three-month investigation by The New York Times has found.

But an often byzantine set of federal regulations, largely shaped and fiercely defended by the energy industry itself, allowed companies producing natural gas to provide the Interior Department with much lower sale prices - the crucial determinant for calculating government royalties - than they reported to their shareholders.

As a result, the nation's taxpayers - collectively, the biggest owner of American oil and gas reserves - have missed much of the recent energy bonanza.

[rodeodance]

1. damn damn

[Wapsie B]

2. Why does this not suprise me?

It's like the piano player guarding the whorehouse. It's business as usual, even moreso.

[hang a left]

3. Oil firms dodging liabilities for drilling in national parks...

Oil firms dodging liabilities for drilling in national parks...

RAW STORY
Published: January 22, 2006


WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 - At a time when energy prices and industry profits are soaring, the federal government collected little more money last year than it did five years ago from the companies that extracted more than $60 billion in oil and gas from publicly owned lands and coastal waters, the New York Times reports Monday. Full registration-free article posted when it moves.


If royalty payments in fiscal 2005 for natural gas had risen in step with market prices, the government would have received about $700 million more than it actually did, a three-month investigation by The New York Times has found.

But an often byzantine set of federal regulations, largely shaped and fiercely defended by the energy industry itself, allowed companies producing natural gas to provide the Interior Department with much lower sale prices - the crucial determinant for calculating government royalties - than they reported to their shareholders.
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As a result, the nation's taxpayers - collectively, the biggest owner of American oil and gas reserves - have missed much of the recent energy bonanza.

snip>

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Oil_firms_dodging_liabilities_for_drilling_0122.html

[Lorien]

4. They wallow in riches while we and our environment get screwed

same old, same old....

When will the opposition start screaming about all the profiteering going on in this country??

[Triana]

7. The opposition¿

(what opposition¿)

bytheway, I love the kittie pics! :)

[Canuckistanian]

5. I'm shocked, appalled even

NOT...

[pdurod1]

6. I'd like to know what took place during,..

the energy task force meetings (that Cheney was driving) Isn't there a freedom of infomation act thing that we can find out what was discussed.

[HuffleClaw]

8. "...the Bush administration recently loosened the rules..."

i guess this is the direct result of those super secret cheney energy policy meetings. this rape of the public cannot be allowed to continue.

[Moderator]

9. kick

[Judi Lynn]

10. US: As Profit Soars, Companies Pay US Less for Gas Rights

US: As Profit Soars, Companies Pay US Less for Gas Rights

by Edmund L. Andrews, The New York Times
January 23rd, 2006

At a time when energy prices and industry profits are soaring, the federal government collected little more money last year than it did five years ago from the companies that extracted more than $60 billion in oil and gas from publicly owned lands and coastal waters.

If royalty payments in fiscal 2005 for natural gas had risen in step with market prices, the government would have received about $700 million more than it actually did, a three-month investigation by The New York Times has found.

But an often byzantine set of federal regulations, largely shaped and fiercely defended by the energy industry itself, allowed companies producing natural gas to provide the Interior Department with much lower sale prices - the crucial determinant for calculating government royalties - than they reported to their shareholders.
(snip)

The disparities in gas prices parallel those uncovered just five years ago in a wave of scandals involving royalty payments for oil. From 1998 to 2001, a dozen major companies, while admitting no wrongdoing, paid a total of $438 million to settle charges that they had fraudulently understated their sale prices for oil.
(snip/...)

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13150

[guruoo]

11. Just imagine how much less we'd be paying per gallon if...

they applied this profit-based standard to
the price at the pump?

[Benhurst]

12. Like almost everything else in BushAmerica,

it's a ripoff.

[Trillo]

13. I guess they've got the best government money can buy. nt

[f-bush]

14. what would you expect with Darth setting enrgy policy!

[NVMojo]

15. they are stealing from Americans and then charging Americans for

their own product. Go figure.