Advisory Panel Dominated by Oil Execs Urges Lower Offshore Royalties

"Oil executives urged the Trump administration to slash the rates their companies pay to harvest natural gas and crude from beneath U.S. waters.

The U.S. Interior Department’s royalty policy committee, filled with industry representatives, voted Wednesday to recommend cutting rates for offshore oil and gas production by about a third, to 12.5 percent.

When Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke recommissioned the panel last year, he raised the possibility the group would encourage an increase in the royalties that companies pay the U.S government for oil, gas and other resources extracted from public land and waters."

Jennifer A Dlouhy reports for Bloomberg February 28, 2018.