Big Oil Stockpiles Supplies and Pockets Profits

The Truth About America's Energy:
Big Oil Stockpiles Supplies and Pockets Profits
A Special Report by the Committee on Natural Resources
Majority Staff
June 2008

In the last four years, the Bureau of Land Management has issued
28,776 permits to drill on public land; yet, in that same time, 18,954 wells were
actually drilled. That means that companies have stockpiled nearly 10,000
extra permits to drill that they are not using to increase domestic production.

Further, despite the federal government=s willingness to make public
lands and waters available to energy developers, of the 47.5 million acres of
on-shore federal lands that are currently being leased by oil and gas
companies, only about 13 million acres are actually Ain production@, or
producing oil and gas (Figure 2). Similar trends are evident offshore as well
(Figure 3), where only 10.5 million of the 44 million leased acres are currently
producing oil or gas.

Combined, oil and gas companies hold leases to nearly 68 million acres
of federal land and waters that they are not producing oil and gas (Figure 4).
Oil and gas companies would not buy leases to this land without believing oil
and gas can be produced there, yet these same companies are not producing
oil or gas from these areas already under their control.

Committee On Natural Resources

Rahall to Big Oil: Use It or Lose It