On its face, a federal provision requiring oil and natural gas companies to be transparent about what they pay to foreign governments for energy projects in those countries -- licenses, taxes, royalties and other fees -- sounds like a good idea. And it is. The provision enacted in 2010 was designed to help people in resource-rich countries know what their governments are doing with those resources.

Unfortunately, good intentions don't always ensure fairness. With these disclosure requirements there are unintended consequences that could harm some U.S. oil and natural gas companies' ability to compete in the global market with larger, state-owned rivals. These include:

• Reporting rules that require public disclosure of detailed information about payments to foreign governments, pote... more »

Great post by the American Enterprise Institute’s Steven Hayward (similar version posted on Powerline), breaking down a recent study of government revenues from oil and natural gas leases on public lands, onshore and off. The study is important because it refutes the claim that energy companies don’t pay their “fair share” for the right to develop federal lands.

Interestingly, as Hayward notes, the IHS-CERA study was requested by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) after another government study suggested exactly that. A 2008 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said the federal government wasn’t collecting as much from oil and natural gas production on public lands as it should – ranking 93rd out of 104 fiscal systems around the world and losing b... more »

One of the more ridiculous arguments against the Keystone XL is that the pipeline is really just about exporting crude oil and petroleum products to China.  Let’s go to the facts:

Here’s a breakdown of the U.S. crude oil supply in 2011 – using data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA).  We see that 99.7 percent of the crude oil produced or imported into the U.S. was processed here.  We simply do not export crude oil in any significant way.  Nor is that likely to change.

According to the EIA, increased imports of Canadian oil sands crude oil would likely replace declining heavy crude imports from Mexico and Venezuela and Ecuador (the two OPEC members in Latin America).  Heavy crude imports from those countries are 900,000 barrels per day lower than their 2005 level... more »

John Felmy, API’s chief economist, talked to reporters this week about a looming federal “regulatory avalanche” that could impact the production of oil and natural gas from shale – and reduce the president’s State of the Union call for increased domestic production to hot air:

“On the one hand we have President Obama saying he supports natural gas development. … Within weeks of making this statement, the administration has done just the opposite, announcing several plans to further constrain development, reducing opportunities to produce our domestic supply of oil and natural gas and create and support these American jobs. We have reached a point where our industry’s efforts to produce the natural gas the president says he wants are being overwhelmed by an avalanche of acronyms. EPA... more »

New York Times op-ed columnist Joe Nocera’s piece on the “poisoned” politics of the Keystone XL pipeline decision is a must read. Better get to it right away, before some of the folks posting comments to  Nocera’s column descend on the Gray Lady with pitchforks and battle axes, demanding that the article be pulled down. Nocera:

Surely, though, what the Keystone decision really represents is the way our poisoned politics damages the country. Environmental concerns notwithstanding, America will be using oil — and lots of it — for the foreseeable future. It is the fundamental means by which we transport ourselves, whether by air, car or truck.

Nocera’s point about oil (and natural gas) is spot on. According to the Energy Information Administration, oil and gas will supply most of ou... more »