• Energy Tax Facts
• 11 Dec 13

Houston Chronicle: IPAA Encouraged Budget Doesn’t Jeopardize Critical Oil and Gas Tax Provisions

WASHINGTON — The oil and gas industry dodged another bullet in the new congressional budget deal, which avoids spiking tax breaks long used by energy companies.

Instead, the deal makes modest cuts to a government ultradeep-water research program and to a policy that lets companies collect interest on royalty overpayments.

The budget agreement lawmakers unveiled late Tuesday also would implement a long-stalled U.S.-Mexico treaty governing oil drilling along the two countries’ maritime boundary in the Gulf.

While industry lobbyists were still analyzing the pact early Wednesday, their initial reaction was positive.

Poll: Most voters oppose raising oil and gas taxes

Independent Petroleum Association of America spokeswoman Julia Bell said the group was “encouraged that the budget deal doesn’t jeopardize the industry’s tax provisions.”

“The oil and natural gas industry is a rare bright spot in our economy, and the budget deal recognizes that this part of the tax code is actually working for the country,” Bell added.

Leaders of the House and Senate tax-writing committees are still developing legislation to broadly rewrite the nation’s tax code, likely repealing some deductions used by the oil and gas industry in the process. But industry leaders had worried that the tax breaks also could be in jeopardy as part of any congressional deal to ease automatic spending cuts known as sequestration.