Tax

Pipeline giants Williams and Enbridge Inc. on Thursday announced they are simplifying their corporate structures in reaction to a FERC ruling in March that removed master limited partnership (MLP) tax benefits. Natural gas exporter Cheniere Energy Inc. also said it wants to acquire its partnership.

Kinder Morgan Inc.’s (KMI) natural gas business outperformed in the final three months of 2017, driven mostly by growth in transportation volumes, as the midstream giant readies expansions for its oil and gas systems across North America.

Oklahoma took in $1 billion in gross receipts in December, a 12% increase for the month that was fueled in part by a nearly 43% increase in taxes levied on gross oil and natural gas production, said State Treasurer Ken Miller.

In what could be a sign of things to come in the wake of tax reform championed by President Trump and his Republican allies in Congress, a state regulator from Oklahoma warned contemporaries that swift action was needed to ensure that public utility customers, not the utilities themselves, reap the benefits.

President Trump stood on the South Lawn of the White House with dozens of Republican lawmakers Wednesday, touting his biggest legislative accomplishment to date: passage of a $1.5 trillion comprehensive tax reform bill, which the GOP successfully muscled through Congress earlier in the day, despite an 11th hour hiccup.

House Republicans passed a $1.5 trillion comprehensive tax reform bill on Tuesday that lowers the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% and preserves important tax credits used by the oil and gas industry.

The Republican-controlled Pennsylvania House late Wednesday narrowly passed a plan to fund the state’s $32 billion budget and plug its $2 billion-plus deficit, which does not include a severance tax on unconventional natural gas production like its Senate counterpart.

Pennsylvania’s GOP-controlled Senate on Thursday put the natural gas industry on the defensive as it passed a revenue package to fund the state budget that includes a volumetric fee on production designed to generate an estimated $100 million annually.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Tuesday vetoed legislation that would have expanded a sales tax exemption for oil and natural gas producers, saying it would have cost the state too much and unfairly favored the industry.