<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch an action in the short term will help mitigate a price war that is sinking prices and decreasing production,\u201d the 14 lawmakers said in a letter to Bernhardt dated Friday and seen by Reuters. The congress members represent Gulf coast districts including in Texas and Louisiana.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A long list of businesses have been seeking assistance from the White House and the U.S. Congress to counter the impact of the global pandemic, which has infected more than a quarter of a million people worldwide, decimating travel and forcing massive disruptions in daily life.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The economic fallout of the outbreak combined with a price war between major oil producer nations Saudi Arabia and Russia has triggered a slump in crude oil prices that threatens the once booming U.S. drilling industry.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The American Petroleum Institute on Friday asked for additional regulatory relief from President Donald Trump, including on things like waivers for seasonal fuel requirements, a suspension of non-essential inspections and audits, and certain leasing and permitting considerations.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The lawmakers said in their letter that Bernhardt has the authority to waive or suspend royalties on existing leases under federal laws covering the Outer Continental Shelf. There is a 12.5% royalty rate for leases in water depths of less than 200 meters and a royalty rate of 18.75% for all other leases. The rate has been unchanged for more than a century.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Department of Interior did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Firing up\u00a0offshore\u00a0drilling has been a crucial part of Trump\u2019s \u201cenergy dominance\u201d agenda to maximize domestic production of crude oil, natural gas and coal.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, a major sale of oil and gas leases in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico generated $93 million in high bids, the lowest total for any U.S.\u00a0offshore\u00a0auction since 2016, reflecting caution in the drilling industry amid a steep slide in oil prices. (Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Richard Valdmanis)<\/p>\n
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\u201cSuch an action in the short term will help mitigate a price war that is sinking prices and decreasing production,\u201d the 14 lawmakers said in a letter to Bernhardt dated Friday and seen by Reuters. The congress members represent Gulf coast districts including in Texas and Louisiana. A long list of businesses have been seeking …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[3290,3590,3588,1131,166,1820,3591,3589],"class_list":["post-6611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marine-world","tag-cut","tag-interior","tag-lawmakers","tag-offshore","tag-oil","tag-rates","tag-royalty","tag-urge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/6612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}