Royalties

British Columbia (BC) has unveiled a revamped oil and natural gas production royalty system that would replace a patchwork of complex incentives with a flat 5% rate on all wells until costs are fully paid. The sliding-scale royalties on paid-for wells would range from 5% to 40%. Rates would be driven by prices fetched on…

Higher-than-expected oil and natural gas production, as well as stronger prices, are giving New Mexico’s coffers a boost, the state’s Legislative Finance Committee (LFC) recently reported. The committee also anticipates Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 oil output of 408 million bbl, or 1.12 million b/d — a 10.8% year/year increase. “Global consumption and demand for oil…

After reserving power to order oil production cuts without needing to use it for 13 months, the Alberta government plans to let the emergency curtailment policy expire at the end of this month. “The market is now working as it should,” said Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage.  “Oil production has reached pre-pandemic levels but is…

With fossil fuel prices rising and liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities under construction to propel industry growth, British Columbia (BC) has launched an overhaul of its notoriously complicated natural gas and oil royalties. “The BC royalty system for natural gas and oil is broken,” according to a government-commissioned preliminary report. The assessment was done…

In the continued back-and-forth machinations to scuttle Trump-era rules, the Interior Department is axing regulations put in place last year, including rules that eliminated millions in revenue from fossil fuel extraction. In early January, the Trump administration finalized a makeover of Obama-era royalties reforms known as the 2020 Valuation Reform and Civil Penalty Rule. The…

After more than seven years, a federal court has given final approval to two class action settlements that would require Chesapeake Energy Corp. to pay Pennsylvania landowners more than $9 million for improperly calculating oil and gas royalties.  The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas certified two settlement classes this week. The…

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled that the attorney general (AG) can’t use the state’s Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law against natural gas producers in a setback to the AG’s case alleging landowners were underpaid royalties. The state’s high court reversed a lower court’s decision and ruled 6-1 that the law shields only…

Lifted by revenue pulled from the Permian Basin in West Texas, the state’s oil and natural gas industry paid $13.9 billion in taxes and royalties in fiscal 2020, or around $38 million/day,  according to a top industry group. Data compiled by the Texas Oil & Gas Association (TXOGA) indicated state energy industry taxes and royalties…

The Interior Department, which last spring allowed oil and natural gas producers to sharply reduce royalty payments because of Covid-19, failed to evaluate the policy to determine how much relief was needed or how much it would cost, according to the federal government watchdog. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) in a report issued to Congress…